The Other Agency
by Fire From Above
Summary: Bryce sent the Intersect to Chuck to keep it safe. What he didn't know was that Fulcrum recruited him after he got kicked out of Stanford. What will Chuck do now that he is caught between his loyalty to Fulcrum and duty to the government?
1. Chapter 1

_Disclaimer: I do not own the characters in _Chuck._ NBC and the producers have them._

_A/N: This is my take on Chuck starting out in the spy world with a little twist._

The Other Agency

Chapter 1: Prologue

Jill was looking at him in disbelief. He was sitting on the edge of her bed, head in hands, face pale, and an aura of panic and despair settling around him.

"I didn't cheat. I don't know why he's doing this. I don't understand. Please Jill, you have to believe me." He was looking at her now, a look of utter pleading directed at her.

She believed him. Jill didn't know what Bryce's game was, but she, him, and everyone else knew that Chuck was not a cheater. Unfortunately, the administration had another view. He was supposed to leave tomorrow, and she didn't know what to do.

"I believe you." Jill crossed the room and took her boyfriend's hands in her own. His palms were sweaty with his nervousness. She just squeezed his hands and settled herself on his lap. They wrapped their arms around each other and held on tightly.

Even thought Jill's superiors wanted her to break up with him, she felt that she couldn't do it. Not when he was in trouble. Not when he needed her. Not when she still loved him. She tried to think through the swirl of emotions that were buffeting her.

"This is the end, Jill. My life is over. I'm walking out of here in utter shame and humiliation. I know I have still have so much to offer, but that's going to waste. Not when I'm getting kicked out of Stanford for cheating." Chuck was still in a state of numb shock and underlying desperation.

"I know, Chuck. You're one of the most brilliant guys I know," she whispered in his ear. A flash of inspiration struck her. She felt her spirits lift a little in hope. "Actually, I don't think this is the end quite yet. I know someone who might be able to use your special talents."

* * *

"He is really brilliant. And there's the added bonus that he's getting screwed out of a prestigious university. He is embarrassed and depressed about his future prospects. His current mental state will make it easy to turn him to our cause. By giving him a position in R&D or as an analyst, he will be extremely grateful for a job suited to his talents."

Jill was looking hopefully at her Uncle Bernie. She was trying her best to sell Chuck to her family friend/recruiter so that he can be happy. It would be an added bonus if they could still stay together by working together.

Bernie took in all of the points that Jill had told him about Chuck. His grades, side projects, and other ways that he showcased his ingenuity in daily life were illustrated quite well by his favorite recruit. He definitely sounded like an attractive candidate for Fulcrum. But he had to be sure.

"Jill, are you sure you're not doing this because he is your boyfriend?"

She was a bit taken aback, but quickly recovered. She decided to be honest. "Chuck is the smartest guy I know when it comes to computers and engineering in general. And I really think that he'll take well to the organization. And I wouldn't know about him if I wasn't dating him. The fact that he is my boyfriend is just a small part of why I'm trying to bring him into the fold." Jill decided to go in for a bit more of a sinister clincher. "All I really did was see an opportunity and exploit it."

"Will he be loyal?"

"Yes. He is everybody's friend and tries his best to please people." Jill took a quick moment to fit Chuck's recruitment into what secret spy organizations want. "He is really vulnerable right now. He can barely look at anyone without feeling unfairly judged. The fact that he is getting kicked out of a prestigious university for cheating is going to put a red flag on him for any future employers. As he sees it right now, there is nowhere left for him to go. But I can vouch for him that he has gotten everything in his life on his own merits. Fulcrum can rescue him from a fate of working as a second rate computer repairman. He will be grateful and will feel forever indebted to us."

Bernie leaned back and took in all that Jill had said. She was quite passionate and convincing about the guy. He trusted her judgment and could sense the truth in what she said.

"Alright, Jill. Bring him in. I would like to evaluate him and see what he can offer the company. In the meantime, we're going to do a little background check."

Tension eased out of Jill and relief made itself clear in her smile and the sag of her shoulders. "Thank you. I'll bring him in right away."

* * *

Vincent looked over Chuck's files. From what he could see, the kid was _good_. Also, an interesting video showing a chat between some other college kid and Professor Fleming proved to be quite enlightening.

The reasons why the CIA wanted Charles Bartowski merit thorough investigation. In the meantime, Fulcrum can swoop in and take Chuck as its own. Vincent thought he felt in his gut that Chuck would prove to be an incredible force in advancing Fulcrum's interests. And through that, the Ring would prove to be truly unstoppable.

Vincent decided to indulge himself for once took out some brandy. Chuck would be an enjoyable diversion from the search for Orion. Hell, he might prove to trump Orion if things work out as they should.

* * *

Chuck was feeling a lot of things. Anxiety, excitement, nervousness, fear, giddiness, and nausea proclaimed war in Chuck. He still was a bit apprehensive about what he might have just gotten himself into, but it couldn't be any worse than anything else he might've had to do after leaving Stanford in disgrace.

Ellie was disappointed, but it was softened when he told her about the job at Roark Industries. He might not have gotten his diploma, but he was still pursuing a life goal. She didn't need to tell her about the whole Fulcrum thing. That might have been complicated.

As he contemplated, he walked up to the reception desk in the Roark Industries lobby.

"Hey. I'm new here, so I just wanted to know where I can find Mr. Varnes? It's my first day and this place is really big and I'm really excited to have the chance to work here-"

"Go to the elevators to Level 5. Take a left at the first hallway and keep going until you reach his office. Have a nice day." The dismissal was not lost on Chuck, so he took the directions and soon found himself in a rather messy office.

Mr. Varnes stood up from behind his desk and made his way around to shake Chuck's hand. "Ah, you must be Chuck! I've read your files and I'm excited to get started with you. We are working on a computer database that will revolutionize the world."

As he continued talking, he yanked Chuck with him out of the door and into another elevator. Chuck couldn't seem to get a word in, so he just took in everything his companion was saying. They got out of some basement level into a rather large and white room. Chuck's eyes widened in shock and glee when he was face to face with Ted Roark himself.

The computer mogul smirked at him and held his hand out for a shake, that Chuck was eager to do. "Welcome to Roark Industries, Chuck." He leaned in a bit closer and said, "And more importantly, welcome to Fulcrum."

"Thank you, sir. You can't believe how excited and grateful I am to be here. You are one of my heroes, and I just wish that I can make a difference in your company."

Ted beamed at the enthusiasm his new hire was displaying. "And we're glad that you can join us. We are working on a new computer that will help push our agenda on the world stage. However, it still needs some work. Let me introduce you to the Intersect Computer. I'm sure that with your skill, it will be everything that we desire."


	2. Life is Good

_Disclaimer: I do not own Chuck and his associates. They belong to NBC, I think._

_A/N: Wow. I've got to say, I wasn't expecting such an enthusiastic response. Anyways, here is the next chapter. We pick up a couple of years later at about the same time the show starts. I thinks it's 2007._

Chapter 2: Life is Good

"Maybe if we decrease the data load in each picture, that could make it easier for download and retention. The downsides would be that there will be a lot more useless junk in the files and it would take longer to take in everything. At least, those are the things I can think of off the top of my head."

Chuck rubbed his temple as he continued to problem solve. Him and Tom Varnes were trying to figure out ways to download the Intersect into a wider array of people without frying their brains. So far, progress was at a standstill.

"Hmm, maybe we should take a break," Tom said. "I could use a beer. And my head is killing me from all this thinking."

"Heh, you're starting to sound like your brother. Maybe we should take a break." Chuck grinned. He enjoyed ribbing Tom about his idiot brother. Tom refused to acknowledge that he even had one.

"Can you please stop saying I have a brother? Come on, let's go to Bennigan's. Actually, _he_ might be there. Let's go somewhere else."

"Did you just say that you don't want to go to Bennigan's because Jeff is going to be there?"

Tom huffed in exasperation. "I told you, I don't have a brother."

"Sure thing Frahn-ken-steen."

XXXX

"So, do you have a girlfriend?" The pretty brunette that Ellie and Awesome were trying to set Chuck up with was giving him a really cute and innocent look. However, Chuck got the feeling that she was far from innocent.

"Well, I used to. We were dating for several years, but thought that we were too young to make such a commitment. So we decided to date other people to see who else is out there."

She grinned coquettishly. "So how is the search going so far?"

Chuck gave back his own suggestive grin. "The search is going _very _well. From all the people I've met so far at this party, I can definitely say that Ellie has good taste in friends."

"Why thank you! You've definitely got a way about you that I find very attractive, Chuck. So, how about we skip out early on the party and I can find a birthday gift to give you?"

_Oh, this is too good. Do I take the gift, or face Ellie's wrath?_ "Ellie is going to kill me for sneaking away from my own birthday party, but she'll forgive me."

XXXX

It was very late at night, and Chuck was trying to stay awake behind the wheel as he drove home. He had a great time with the brunette, Cheryl, and wished that he could have spent the night. However, he had work the next day. That meant he had to get up and continue on the download problems they were having with the Intersect.

Chuck's cell phone ring jerked him to alertness. He saw that it was Ellie, and was hesitant to pick it up. He didn't want to get chewed out, but it would be even worse if he delayed.

"Hey, sis...Oh, I had a great time. I really appreciate the time and effort you put into celebrating my birthday...Your friend, Cheryl, wanted to show me something at her place...Yes, I mean sex...It was just some fun...If we ever follow up, I have her phone number...I actually have work tomorrow, so I have to go home now and get some sleep...Yeah...Listen, I'm home now, so I'm going to get some sleep. Thanks for the party, and I'll help you clean up tomorrow. Bye, Ellie."

The conversation had taken Chuck from the road all the way back to his apartment. He got ready for bed, but decided to check his e-mail before going to sleep.

"Hm, an e-mail from Bryce. How considerate of him. _The terrible troll raises it's sword._ Great, how does that go again?"

Chuck pondered his hero satchel for a couple of moments before coming to the answer. He typed in _'Attack with nasty knife.'_

After entering his answer, images started to bombard his brain from the computer screen.

XXXX

An alarm clock's ringing woke Chuck up. _Ugh, what happened? Ach, my head. How much did I have last night?_

The nerd in question blearily sat up from his position on the floor and looked around. He was in his room on the floor. He looked over to his computer and-

"Oh no! What happened?"

Smoke was bellowing out of the computer with flashes of sparks. With a final crackle of electricity, the poor machine's face plate blew off and it fell apart. Chuck stared forlornly at the smoking, charred remains of his computer.

"Thanks a lot, Bryce. Not only you had to get me kicked out of Stanford, but you also had to destroy my computer."

From the looks of things, it was completely destroyed. With a defeated sigh, he picked up its remains and dumped it in the trash. On the bright side, he could get a newer and better computer from Roark for free. Working for secret independent agencies had its quirks.

XXXX

Chuck entered the Buymore with his gear in tow. His job in Fulcrum was as a lead programmer on the Intersect project. However, he also had to do a cover job with Roark Industries as a programmer and community liaison. That means that every once in a while he has to go to different electronic stores to classes on the new software and hardware that RI releases.

It was annoying to attend to the cover job, but Chuck realized that it may be good to do once in a while to help him refocus away from Intersect problems. And he was glad to visit Morgan at the Buymore he was at.

"Dude, where were you last night? You up and disappeared. Ellie was wondering what happened to you." Morgan had honed in on Chuck as soon as he stepped through the doors and made a beeline toward his friend.

"Oh, well, I met someone and one thing led to another," Chuck answered with a sheepish grin.

"Congratulations. Anyways, great party. Ellie really outdid herself. I tried to show my appreciation, but she just hustled me out of the courtyard."

As the two friends chatted, they made their way to the Nerd Herd kiosk where Chuck would give his presentation and answer questions from the audience. Chuck thought that was rather inconvenient because crowds might develop in the middle of the store and disrupt traffic. Oh, well.

XXXX

"No, it looks completely destroyed. Everything is burnt to a crisp and plain old broken. Bryce sure knows how to cover his tracks." She shifted her cell phone to her other ear as she examined the computer that the Intersect was sent to.

Sarah sifted through the wreckage in the garbage can a little bit more before giving up on finding anything of worth. She rifled through some of Chuck's stuff to get some insight into his character. Her search revealed a desk calendar with Chuck's schedule. That day's activities caught her interest.

"I'm not sure how much this guy knows, but I think I know where to find him. I'm going to find out what his involvement with Bryce is." She ended the call with Graham and took one last look around to see if she missed anything.

Sarah then left the building to catch some sort of computer class. She was already in a bad mood as she tore out of the parking lot and onto the freeway. First, she finds out that Bryce had gone rogue and destroyed an important piece of government property. Then she was under investigation to see if she was a traitor as well. To say that she was having a bad day would be an understatement.

_This Chuck better be one of the good guys. Or there's going to be hell to pay._

XXXX

"So if there are no more questions, I'll let you all go back to your shopping experience. I'll be here until 11:00, so if there is anything else you want to discuss in private, you are free to ask."

As the crowd dispersed, Morgan went up to Chuck. "Is there any news on the Roark 7? That's got to be the one that will take the lead in laptop speed and performance ahead of Microsoft and Apple."

"Morgan, that's not going to be out until maybe next year. We're still developing and testing it, so it's too soon to say how it's going to be done."

"Are _you_ working on it?"

A mysterious grin made its way to Chuck's face. _If only you knew._ "Well, I _am_ working on a highly advanced computer that is hopefully going to have an effect on the world. But for the Roark 7 itself, I'm mostly working on some software stuff. However, I can't say much else about my work. Sorry buddy, I have to stay vague. Or else some corporate spy might find out what we're doing."

"Alright, you don't have to be all cloak and dagger about it. Whoa, it's Vicki Vale."

"Vicki Vale, Vicki Vale, Vickity Vickity Vicki Vale-" Chuck was too busy gathering his stuff up to see the beautiful blonde in front of him. Then he saw her. "Uh, hi."

"I hope I wasn't interrupting anything." Sarah gave Chuck a smile that sent his heart pounding.

"Ah, no. That was from Batman."

"And that's supposed to make it better?"

"Um, hi. I'm Morgan," he said cutting in. "And my tall friend here is Chuck."

"Wow, I didn't know people still named their kids Chuck and Morgan."

"And you are-" Chuck cut back in.

"Sarah."

"Well, Sarah," Chuck started, "was there anything you wanted to know about the software upgrades for the R6 Alpha?"

"Yeah, but I don't have a lot of time right now. Is it alright if we discuss it over dinner tonight? That is, if you're free."

"Yes, he is! He's totally free!" Morgan yelled from across the room.

Chuck turned back to her. "Apparently, I'm totally free."

XXXX

He was scared. Now that the adrenaline from disarming a bomb was starting to fade, he was beginning to realize the extent of his situation. The two agents arguing in front of him were doing nothing to allay his fears.

_Alright Chuck. Everything will be fine. Just don't panic. Stay cool. Don't give them any hint that you're part of a secret organization that is trying to influence the United States government with extreme prejudice. Oh boy. This is bad. I'm going to jail. They're going to find out. No, they'll not. Just act self indignant. Maybe that will work._

"Excuse me." Sarah and Casey were jolted out of their exchange and looked to Chuck. "There is a lot going on and it's going to take some time for me to adjust. But right now, I'm going home. _You_ need _me._"

He brushed passed them and found his car. It wasn't in the best of shape after Sarah's road warrior stunts, but it was good enough to get him home. The music was turned up to drown out Chuck's worries about the CIA and NSA keeping a watch on him.

When he got back home, he flopped down on his bed and tried to get to sleep. Too bad he didn't get much.

XXXX

The next morning, Chuck raced to work. Raced safely within the speed limit, of course. It wouldn't do for him to get local law enforcement on his tale as well. He had enough trouble with the two agencies horning in on his life.

He made it to Roark Industries and proceeded to run through the lobby and to the elevator. He pressed the button and waited for it to come down. Chuck's jitteriness, however, made it hard for him to wait for the elevator that he just now noticed was extremely slow. So he bolted up the stairs for about six stories before he got tired and waited again for the elevator. _Why does Ted have to have his office on the top floor? Why can't he have it on the ground floor. It might not be 'executive' enough, but he would be more accessible. Unless he doesn't want to be accessible. HOLY CRAP, THE GOVERNMENT IS AFTER ME!_

Chuck's panicky inner monologue was disrupted by the his arrival to Ted's floor and he ran out and barged right into Ted Roark's office. Mindy, his secretary, was squawking after him with indignity for failing to observe proper CEO visitation procedure. Chuck cut her off by closing the door.

"I have an Intersect in my head!" Chuck began without preamble.

Ted looked at him in confusion. "I know."

"No, I mean, I have a new Intersect in my head."

"Did you make another one? I thought we were working on the micro updates so that _everyone_ can download an Intersect?"

Chuck took a deep breath and tried to order his thoughts. "No. What I mean to say is that an old college buddy of mine, who happened to be a CIA agent, sent me the _government_ Intersect. I now have the Intersect the CIA and NSA was working on, but also our own Intersect. And now, I have two federal agents keeping watch on me. I think they're going to develop me as an asset. Ted, I'm freaking out." He ended his monologue in a frenzied rush.

A look or alarm and concern flashed over Ted's face before he said, "Well, shit."

XXXX

_A/N: Basically, the date and mission that happened in the pilot took place in here as well. However, Chuck is trying to keep secret the fact that he is Fulcrum away from his new handlers. I'm going to figure out how to get a beta so that I can work out some ideas and improve my writing. Thanks for reading._


	3. A Tale of Two Intersects

_Disclaimer: See previous chapters_

Chapter 3: A Tale of Two Intersects

"So at 2000 tonight, Dr. Zarnow is going to arrive and test out the Intersect. With his help, you might be able to get it out. Any questions?" General Beckman looked like she wasn't expecting any.

Chuck had a lot of questions, but he didn't think it would be wise to voice some of them. Like: Will trying to remove the government Intersect in any way affect the Fulcrum one I already have in my head? What if I don't want to get it out since it has valuable information? No, it was best not to raise suspicions.

After Graham and Beckman signed off of Casey's screen, Sarah turned to him for some reassurance. "Don't worry, Chuck. As soon as we get it out, you can return to your life. Then you won't be in anymore danger."

"And we won't have to babysit your geek ass any longer," Casey growled out. Chuck was especially scared of him and what he might do if he found out the truth of Chuck's job.

"Yeah, thanks you two," Chuck said faintly. "I really don't want to take up anymore of your time, since it is obviously needed elsewhere. Very far from here. I'll see you guys tomorrow."

Chuck quickly made his way out of Casey's apartment and back to his own. Unfortunately, Chuck's penthouse was extremely close by, all for his protection. He didn't feel very comfortable living so close to the NSA agent, who might find something incriminating at Chuck's place. Good thing he doesn't usually take his work home.

* * *

"Listen, Chuck. You have to calm down. I'm going to get someone on Dr. Zarnow right now. For now, he is just going to test the government Intersect's functioning and come up with ways to delete it. Before he gets that far, we'll take care of him." Ted was doing his best to calm down his star programmer, but the guy was just a panicky mess.

"What do you mean by _'take care of him'_ ?" Yes, Chuck worked for an independent spy organization, but that didn't mean he was a bad guy. And he certainly didn't want anyone killed on his behalf.

"We'll probably bribe him or get him to work for us. If the CIA and NSA are trusting him with such a task, he must be useful somehow. It would be quite a waste of intelligence to just bump him off." Ted was trying to allay Chuck's fears, since Chuck would find it hard to concentrate on his work if he was weighed down by guilt over Dr. Zarnow. "But for now, why don't you head on to your lunch break? Let Uncle Ted take care of the rest." **(1)**

* * *

Chuck walked out into the front courtyard of the building. A bunch of shops and eateries dotted the street along the way. A strip mall was situated on the next block. As he wandered along deciding where to eat, he tried to release some of his anxiety.

_Everything is going to be fine. Fulcrum will take care of me. It always has, and it always will. I just have to trust that the situation will be fixed, and I can continue on with my life without fear of incarceration or execution._

His thoughts were interrupted when he saw Sarah cleaning up a table in front of a pretzel shop: Uncle Olaf's Pretzels. Chuck felt his heart stop as he looked at her in her Uncle Olaf uniform and across the street to his place of work. With trepidation, he walked up to her.

"Hey, Sarah. What are you, ah, what are you doing here?"

"Oh, hey Chuck." She turned around and gave him a smile while she gathered up some trays. "I have a job here."

"Don't you already have a job?"

"Yeah, but I need a cover job nearby so that I can be close to you. Your safety is of the utmost importance, so I have to have ready access to you in case of emergency."

So much for clearing his head. The anxiety was coming back. "Well, you didn't really need to do that. I mean, Roark Industries has state of the art security. We have a lot of sensitive stuff in there, so we need to keep everything safe from whoever wants to cause some mischief." _Like you and Casey._

"I know security there is top of the line. Casey and I have tried to get in to ensure some surveillance, but we weren't able to do that."

Chuck's heart rate ramped up to near heart attack levels. He also started to feel himself sweat in nervousness at her revelation. "Ah, I don't really think that's necessary. As I said, RI has incredible security, so it's not like I need any extra from the government. Besides, wouldn't it be too much of a hassle to establish your own security on top of our own? I _do_ work at a technology company with a couple of paranoid geeks, so you run the risk of somebody finding your spy stuff. How about this? If our security passes muster with you, then you don't need to add anything extra. Just guard me here and that should be enough. Why don't you bring that up with your bosses?"

Chuck hoped that his placating expression was enough to dissuade her concerns and take his suggestion. At least, he hoped he looked confident and ensuring, and not the nervous wreck he felt inside. Sarah mulled over his suggestions and seemed to come to a conclusion.

"Alright, I'll bring it up. From what we have encountered so far, you guys can withstand an army of hackers and assassins. But I'm going to stay here where I can reach you." She gave him another smile and squeezed his shoulder reassuringly.

Chuck gave a silent sigh of relief at diverting that disaster for the moment. "That's great. I think I'll get something to go since my lunch break is almost over."

"Good, come on in. And I'm not the only one who'll be around. Casey is trying to get a job at Roark as well."

The world stopped and Chuck's eyes widened. "He is?" he wheezed out about an octave higher than normal.

"Yeah, but so far he's not having any luck. Even the janitor positions immediately filled up. But don't worry, he'll find some way to stay close."

"Great, thanks," Chuck gritted out. Too bad, they really needed a new janitor.

* * *

"So after about an hour of flashing on all sorts of government information, Dr. Zarnow was finished with the test and everyone went home. Of course, I was escorted home by Casey and Sarah, who are just watching out for my wellbeing," Chuck finished with a light dose of frustration. Tom Varnes just looked at him with a slightly vacant expression on his face.

"Is she hot?"

Chuck was incredulous. "You mean Sarah?"

"Well, yeah. Aren't female spies supposed to be completely hot?"

Chuck took a moment to collect himself at Tom once again missing the major point he was trying to make. "Despite the fact that she is a federal agent that would not hesitate to kill or imprison me, yes, she is very attractive. But she's one of those, what do you call them, I think honey traps. She is supposed to lure me in with her good looks and charm. Then, when I am lulled into trusting her, she's going to stab me in the back and suck my life force out."

"Ooh, kinky." Judging by the look on his face, Chuck did not want to know what he was thinking.

"Moving on, I can't get too close to her. If I let anything slip, I'm going to go into some secret government bunker. And terrible things will happen to me, like torture. Oh, I don't want to think about this anymore. Right now, I am safe from them in the fortified corporate citadel known as Roark Industries." Chuck sat down and pulled up the latest work on the Intersect.

Varnes noticeably changed tracks in his thought process and focused on the Intersect. "So, what's it like?"

"What's what like?" One can never be too careful when dealing with a Bar-, 'scuse me, Varnes.

"You know, the other Intersect. How's it different from ours?" At least Tom had more focus and intelligence than his non-brother.

Chuck leaned back in his chair and went over the similarities and differences in his head. "Well, the government Intersect is a lot more jarring and disruptive than ours. That must be because it wasn't custom designed for me. You know what? It's a lot saying 'government Intersect' and 'our Intersect'. From now on, they are G-Intersect and F-Intersect respectively. So where was I? Oh, right. With the G-Intersect, a bunch of pictures and documents are bombarded in rapid succession, intercut with other picture cues. I think those intercuts link to other documents. However, it's hard to get a very good look at the data. All I'm able to get are broad and vague facts. It's up to me to surmise what it all means. And I haven't been able to re-flash on something."

"I have a really good memory, which makes it easy to utilize the Intersects. However, it's hard to remember anything specific from the flashes. As such, I could make errors and I can't get anything too in depth."

Tom scoffed. "Then what good is it? Our Intersect is better since it allows for complex computational and data analysis abilities that are beyond soulless machines. We have succeeded in creating a true human supercomputer in you."

Chuck began to pace as he processed the facts, using the F-Intersect to multitask on a couple of ideas at once. "The major advantage of the G-Intersect is that in all of its blunt-force simplicity, it is a lot easier to download. I downloaded it from an e-mail. And there was no need for any preliminary downloads, infrastructure, or training to get it. There were not many details, but just enough information to have an idea of what to do."

"The major problem with the F-Intersect is that it has to be customized to whoever is going to have it. And there are a lot of intermediate steps that have to be implemented. If the G-Intersect can be downloaded into a lot more people without all the prep, dissemination could be easier.

Varnes was smiling as he got onto the same line of thought as Chuck. "So if we can find a workable medium between the two..."

"Come on, Tom," Chuck began excitedly, "we've got a lot of work to do."

* * *

"That's pretty funny." Tommy chuckled as he heard the story. "So he steals the government's Intersect, and sends it to an old college buddy that he screwed over? And that buddy happens to be in one of us? Talk about irony. Or fate, whichever it is. So does that mean Larkin is expendable?"

Tommy looked across the hall to Bryce's recovery room. He had spent hours in surgery and was currently recovering from the gunshots. Tommy's hand went to his gun under his jacket. He smirked.

"I'll eliminate Larkin now."

He turned off his phone and made his way to Bryce's room. Unfortunately for him, the bed was empty. Tommy looked frantically around to see if he was anywhere, but turned up nothing.

"DAMN IT!"

* * *

**(1)** Bit of a shout out to aznblackhowling for the Uncle Ted idea

A/N: Well, I hope you guys liked it. I was struggling with the title, so sorry for that. We're really getting into it now. I'm going to find a beta somehow.


	4. Working With the Enemy

_A/N: Here is the next chapter. Let's see how Chuck is doing as a double agent. And don't forget to review. It's good feedback for me. Also, this is unbeta'd. Does anybody know how to get a beta? Is there some sort of board around here so I could get one? Anyways, happy reading!_

Chapter 4: Working With the Enemy

"So after a brief car chase, we were able to run the perps off the road and arrest them. We suffered no casualties and had no escapes."

Graham looked up from the report as Sarah finished the debrief.

"And the Intersect," Beckman asked, "how has that been working?"

Chuck stood up from where he was seated and began to report on its performance. At least, the G-Intersect's performance. At first, he was nervous about talking to the general and director. But after a few missions, he's become a bit more comfortable interacting with all the government people. The fact that nothing Fulcrum related has come up yet has just made things easier.

After Graham and Beckman sign off, Sarah turns to Chuck. "Good job, Chuck. You did great."

"Yeah," Casey smirked, "you only screamed like a little girl twice."

"And you need to stay in the car." Sarah looked a little more serious at that. "We can't protect you if you go off after the enemy. I don't want you to get hurt." Sarah was giving Chuck a soft but intent look that Chuck had to look away from. She seemed really concerned for him.

"Alright, next time a random thug aims a missile launcher at the car, I'll stay in it." He smiled and seemed to diffuse the situation a bit. "Oh, and let me just remind you that we have dinner tomorrow night with Ellie and Awesome. I think she's going to be bringing out the big guns: glazed pork chops and homemade applesauce."

Sarah's smile dazzled and she looked happy and excited. "I'm looking forward to it."

* * *

Chuck leaned heavily against the door and sunk down to the floor when he got back to his place. He was settling into his role as a double agent for Fulcrum and the government, but it was still a lot of hard and messy work. He had to relay information to two masters. And if Fulcrum showed an interest in someone he flashed on, they tried to contact that person or group. Things just got stickier when the government wanted to shut them down. So far, Chuck has been barely hanging on and keeping his stories straight. Fortunately, the missions have not yet directly clashed with Fulcrum.

Then there was another layer of difficulty: Sarah Walker. Despite his reservations and fears of her being a deadly agent that would execute him if she found out his true loyalties, he found himself getting increasingly attracted to her. She was smart, fun, beautiful, charming-

_Whoa, stop right there, Chuck._ He stopped that thought process before it could get any further. _I'm getting way too comfortable with her. She may be an amazing person, but she is still the enemy. I have to stay scared of her. Sarah Walker is a honeytrap. She will imprison and/or kill me. She will kill me. I have to keep my distance. It shouldn't be that hard since she is doing the same thing._

Chuck repeated the mantra to himself to keep his perspective. It would not do to get complacent. He continued the mantra as he got ready for bed and went to sleep.

* * *

"Mornin' Casey!" Chuck chirped as he walked across the plaza to enter the RI (Roark Industries, in case you don't know. Not that I'm insulting your intelligence, or anything. It's just going to get real annoying to keep writing the whole thing out. Okay, I'm done.) building. Since RI had stonewalled Casey from getting a job in there, he now works at a churro cart in the general vicinity. He has mobility, access to Chuck, and some tasty treats if he gets hungry.

"Hurm," he grunted with a usual Casey expression on his face.

"I forgot to invite you to dinner with Sarah, Ellie, and Awesome tonight. I figured that since you might be monitoring us anyway, you might as well-" Chuck looked to the side and flashed.

Unfortunately, the guy he flashed on was a Fulcrum demolitionist who was entering the building. Before he could hide his flash, Casey noticed what was happening. He took a concerned and businesslike look and looked around for threats.

"Did you just flash? On who?"

_Oh crap. What do I do? I can't just tell him that I flashed on a Fulcrum agent going into RI._ "Uh, yeah, I kind of did flash on something. Or someone." _The hell was that? Like that didn't sound suspicious._

"Well, who? Are we talking about national security?" Casey was getting amped up at the possibility of shooting someone. But he was also getting annoyed at Chuck's flash report.

"Uh, it was a guy. He was walking over there somewhere." Chuck waved in a vague direction tangent to where the agent was walking.

Irritation rising, Casey grabbed Chuck by his lapels and brought him menacingly close. "Quit with the rambling, Bartowski. Who, what, why, where, and when. _Now._"

"Uly Derek, some sort of rogue demolitions expert. I don't know where he's going or why he's here. But I'm more or less sure that he's not in the general vicinity now. I only caught a glimpse of him, so I don't know where he's going. Casey, please let go. I'm going to be late for work."

Casey dropped him and looked at Chuck incredulously. "Late for work? We're talking possible terrorist, and you're more concerned about being late for work?"

"Well, I mean," Chuck began to stutter, "we don't know what he's here for. But I'm pretty sure he was walking over there." He pointed again. "So maybe if you talk to the bosses, they can have more information. And being inside of RI is a lot safer than being out here. So, we've got to protect the Intersect at any cost, right?"

With that, Chuck booked it. He looked back to see Casey talking on his phone, probably alerting the proper people about the situation.

_Damn, that could have been handled better. I've got to tell Ted about this. I hope I didn't just burn the guy._

* * *

"I'm going to have to consult with the others and see what we could do. Chuck, you're supposed to steer any connections to Fulcrum away from us." Ted was thinking hard about how he was going to present the situation.

"I'm sorry, but Casey saw me flash. I can't really control my responses to a G-Intersect flash. It's kind of hard to miss me seizing up like that. And it's really uncontrollable. I was as vague as I could manage without throwing up any red flags. All Casey knows so far is that Uly is in the vicinity, but he does not necessarily have anything to do with Fulcrum or RI." At this point, Chuck was nearly hyperventilating. He really hoped that nothing bad happened to Uly because of him.

"Alright, alright," Ted responded to his increasingly panicky programmer. "You did your best to divert your handler. Just let us take care of Uly."

"You're not going to kill him, are you?" Chuck asked in a small voice. He really did not want to be responsible for someone getting 'taken care of'.

"No, no. We're just going to relocate him. Now, is there any way for you to use the F-Intersect to control the G-Intersect? Ours doesn't give such visible trouble."

Chuck sighed and rubbed his eyes. "No, not yet. They're incompatible programs. It's like trying to run Apple software on a Windows OS _(A/N: I'm assuming you can't do that)_. I'm trying to recode the G-Intersect data so that it could run on the F-Intersect search and advanced analysis programs. It's just that I don't have any conscious control over the G-Intersect like I do over ours."

Ted nodded gravely, with a touch of disappointment. "Alright, just keep working at it. And don't worry about Uly. Just go along with what the government tells you, but help us in the best way you can."

* * *

"So, there's not much else I can say. I caught enough of a glimpse of him to flash, but he was going away from us. I mean, the flash really caught me by surprise. More so than usual. And the resolution of the documents I saw wasn't very good. I suggest in the future that we take hi-res photos so that it would be easier to make out information that is flashing by so quickly. Not a lot of people can read that fast." Chuck was rambling, hoping that he could hit on something that would further divert his team and the bosses from further pursuing Uly.

"That is quite enough, Mr. Bartowski," Beckman interrupted with some irritation. "From our sources, we have found that Uly Derek is a demolitions expert that works freelance for several terrorist networks. There is also some evidence that he works with several rogue government agents."

_Uh-oh,_ Chuck thought. _Please don't mention Fulcrum. Please, please don't mention Fulcrum._

Graham didn't want Beckman to do all the talking, so he cut in. "Fortunately, we have been able to track him and his last known location was around here. " A map was pulled up which showed Uly's last known whereabouts. "Casey, Walker, we want you to track him down and take him in. Bring the Intersect with you for identification."

With that, they signed off. Casey grinned.

"Well, sounds like we're hunting a demolitions expert." Casey checked his gun and loaded it with glee. "I kind of hope something blows up."

"Great," Chuck said faintly. He was desperately trying to keep the worry off his face. But Sarah caught his expression.

"Don't worry, Chuck," she started with a smile. "Just stay in the car, and we'll keep you safe."

* * *

Uly squeezed off a couple of more shots around the bumper of the car before he sprinted to the side of a building. His eyes scanned his new position to look for a way out, but the agents after him were too hot on his tale.

"Psst, Uly. Over here. San Luis Obispo is really nice this time of year."

Uly recognized the Fulcrum identification phrase coming from behind him. He looked around and saw a guy gesturing for him to hurry on over. Uly fired another shot before he quickly snuck his way over.

"Well, I much prefer San Diego," Uly said the return phrase. "What can you do for me? In case you haven't noticed, but I've got two government agents after me." He fired a couple more shots to keep them pinned in their positions.

"Don't worry, Uly. Let me take care of them. Follow this alleyway all the way down and turn left. Go right at the next block and there should be a beige Nissan Maxima. Take it and head to Black Rock." With that Chuck handed Uly the keys to the car.

"Thanks, man. Anything else?"

"Um, you need to hit me," Chuck said with some trepidation. "I have to maintain plausible deniability with those two. Make it look like you got the jump on me and I was caught unawares. I'm not much of a fighter, so maybe just one punch would do. Not too hard, please. And please don't give me a concussion." He cringed in fear and anticipation.

"Will do. Sorry about this, man. And thanks for helping a fellow agent out."

Before Chuck could reply, Uly pistol whipped him and ran off. Chuck momentarily blacked out, but came back to consciousness with Sarah shaking him to wake up.

* * *

"So you just let him get away? And you let the Intersect get damaged?" Graham was understandably pissed. Beckman seemed no better.

"Sorry, sir and madam. We couldn't find any trace of him after he knocked out the asset." Casey was doing a good job maintaining such a stoic facade in the face of such scrutiny.

"I'm sorry the most," Chuck interjected. "I thought I saw him and wanted to get a closer look to make sure it was him. The next thing I know, I'm on my back in a dingy alleyway looking up at Sarah."

"Be quiet. If you can't keep out of danger, we might have to put you in a bunker for your own protection," Beckman fumed. "In the meantime, we are continuing our search for Uly. As for you, make sure that you keep the Intersect safe."

They signed off and left Sarah, Chuck, and Casey in his apartment. Sarah was tending to the cut on the side of his head from where Uly hit him.

"Chuck," she started, "you have to stay in the car. I don't know how many times we have to tell you, but we can't protect you if you keep getting in dangerous situations like that. I, we could have lost you."

"Sorry again. I'll try harder to do what you and Casey say. And I'm sorry that you guys got in trouble for my actions."

She smiled warmly in response and finished bandaging him up. Chuck couldn't help but feel a little guilty over his deception.

* * *

_A/N: That car was the first one that came to mind, so no advertising. I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter._


	5. Unwanted Discoveries

_A/N: I don't own the characters from Chuck. And thanks a billion to P.J. Murphy for betaing this chapter. He definitely helped with some plot and mechanical stuff._

Chapter 5: Unwanted Discoveries

"Fortunately, he was able to give up the location of the weapons cache. That was a good job you did last night," Beckman finished.

"Thanks, yeah, it was great," Chuck replied, trying to hide his nervousness. While on the mission, he flashed on the guy that they were supposed to bust. Unfortunately, he was Fulcrum. Chuck was feeling conflicted over not being able to do anything to protect him. Not while his handlers were there.

"And one more thing," Beckman continued. "He told us that he was part of a group of rogue government agents called Fulcrum."

"Did he now?" Chuck squeaked out, eyes boggling. He felt his insides twist and drop out. A touch of lightheadedness caused him to sway a bit and stumble.

"Did you flash?" Sarah asked. She clasped his shoulder to steady and reassure him. Chuck did not find the gesture reassuring at all. Instead he felt guilt and fear of discovery well up inside of him. Despite being an agent for the government, she always showed concern and compassion for him. She was tough, smart, kind, and could be counted on to act in Chuck's best interests. In return, he was playing her.

"Out with it Bartowski," Casey growled impatiently. Chuck felt another quiver of fear from the grizzly agent.

"Uh, well, sort of..." he began lamely.

"'Sort of'?' Would you care to explain that? How can you 'sort of' flash on a rogue spy group?" Casey was become increasingly belligerent at Chuck's hesitance.

"Take it easy, Casey," Sarah interjected before Chuck could become further spooked. "Alright, Chuck. Just take a deep breath and tell us what you flashed on."

The icy fear in Chuck's chest melted a bit at Sarah's concern, but the guilt still nearly overwhelmed him. It was getting harder to put up this front with a great woman like Sarah. Sometimes he felt like breaking down and telling her everything, but then he would think of how much that might hurt the both of them. And then he remembered that she was an agent, and it was her job to extract such information. He just had to remind himself that she is doing her job. And doing her job well enough that she might succeed at breaking him. As long as he held onto the idea that she didn't really care about him as nothing more than an asset, he could carry on with his facade.

"Well, yeah, I did flash. I mean, I didn't really know what it meant. And it's sometimes hard to interpret the information in a flash since everything comes at me so quickly and I have to get all the important details out. That's why it's called a 'flash'. Some of the stuff I see is important, some is not. And what I knew about the word 'fulcrum' is that it's the point where a lever works, not some ambiguous secret agency."

"Quit the yapping and tell us what you know." It was easier to keep Casey in perspective, he didn't do much to endear himself to Chuck.

"Right, sorry. The most I can figure out, now that I think about it, is that Fulcrum is some sort of rogue conglomeration or small group of agents. I don't know much more than what you know."

"Is there anything else the Intersect has on Fulcrum?" Beckman asked.

"Not that I can tell right now. It's not like I can execute a search function at will." _Unlike the F-Intersect._

Beckman sighed. "Alright. I'll get some analysts on this new agency." With that, she abruptly cut off.

Chuck felt some relief at the meeting finishing. He said bye to Casey and slumped out of his apartment. Sarah caught up with him in the hallway.

"It's alright, Chuck," she once again reassured. "I understand that having a computer in your head is difficult, and that you don't have much control of your flashes. But just try to relax for now. Let Casey and I protect you from the bad guys. I'll see you tomorrow night for our cover date with Devon and Ellie."

She gave him another smile that made him feel guilty for deceiving her before she walked away. "Thanks," he muttered uneasily to her disappearing figure.

* * *

Chuck fidgeted in place while the Fulcrum agent he was with picked the lock. He looked around at the dingy hallway, but there was nothing to divert his interest.

"Do I really need to be here?" he asked the agent.

"I don't know. Why are you here?" he returned.

"Ted just wanted me to come along and get the software. I don't know why you couldn't have retrieved it yourself if you're supposed to be here and get it."

"I'm not here to retrieve software." With that, he opened the door and darted in with his gun drawn. "Stay right there and let me do my part of the job first."

Chuck waited outside for a few minutes while the agent did his job, which Chuck wasn't quite aware of. All Chuck knew was that Frank Darrow was a computer scientist in Fulcrum, and was notorious for constructing fanciful security measures for his programs. He had also recently betrayed Fulcrum. Chuck had never seriously thought about betraying Fulcrum, but he was aware that the consequences were severe.

He was broken out of his thoughts when he heard conversation. He made his way inside the apartment and looked to see if the agent had found Frank. The report of a silenced pistol spurred Chuck into a run.

Chuck stopped short in a doorway and saw the agent that he had come with putting his gun away. Frank was slumped in a chair, a look of horror marred by a gunshot wound between the eyes.

"Oh my god, what happened?" Chuck was miraculously able to squeak out from his shock.

"Orders," the agent said flatly. "He betrayed Fulcrum, and I was given orders to eliminate him. That's just what happens."

Chuck's brain was frozen in astonishment and fear over the scene. Sure, he knew that Fulcrum was trying to gain influence and power in the world. And that there was a dirty side to that mission. However, Chuck wasn't really in that branch. He spent most of his time in the computer lab. All that he was vaguely aware of sharply focused into full realization at that moment.

"Listen," the agent started when he saw Chuck begin to freak out, "he was a loose end, and would have continued doing more damage. He had to be eliminated to keep everyone else safe." He paused for a moment, trying to determine where else Chuck's thoughts might go. "And honestly, the established government works the same way. I'm still with the CIA, and I have to do this stuff all the time. Actually, I just eliminated another agent a couple of hours ago that was selling secrets to some country." He stopped, wondering if he should say anything else. He decided that he didn't have much else to say.

Chuck took a few moments to collect himself and reflect on what the agent had just said. "Okay. First off, what's your name?"

"Aaron."

"Alright, thank you, Aaron. Now, how can you be so blasé about the whole thing? You just killed a man, and you look bored. No offense."

"None taken. Well, I guess I've just been doing this a long time. With pretty much any intelligence agency, whether legitimate or not, the methods are pretty much the same. Sometimes with you science types, your eyes are so buried in your microscopes or slides or computer screens or whatever, that you don't take stock of all the other stuff that goes on. And if some of you do see it, you don't see anything wrong with it. You know, the whole ends justify the means stuff. Well, that's kind of the same approach with a lot of people, especially those in power. If you keep your eyes up and focused on the 'greater good', then you won't notice that you're walking on a pile of corpses to get there."

Chuck closed his eyes and saw what Aaron had just talked about in his mind's eye. He shivered. "Well, I don't think I'm one of those people. Or at least, I didn't. I mean, it bothers me since I'm looking at a corpse and the guy that just made said corpse. This is the first time I've actually been this close to an assassination, and I am feeling it."

"Congratulations, you're still human?" Aaron wasn't too sure what he was supposed to say. "Just keep in mind that there are other scientists who would experience this as a slight inconvenience to their work. And I'm not talking about just Fulcrum."

Faintly nodding, Chuck shuffled over to the computer and got to work. He lost himself in the maze of security that Frank had constructed. He believes he is a good person, but he was beginning to doubt that. But then, was it so different when he was working for the CIA? There was too much confusion there, so Chuck just focused on his work. Time passed, he didn't know how much, but he eventually got in and was able to take Frank's work.

Aaron startled Chuck a bit when he said, "If you want to survive, you better be indispensable. And understand that there are sacrifices in this line of work."

"Thank you."

* * *

Ellie and Awesome were getting cute and cuddly in front of Chuck and Sarah. Chuck was grateful for some normalcy after a lousy day at work. A smile came to his face as he watched his sister and her boyfriend have a moment together after dinner at the sushi restaurant.

Chuck felt warmed that his sister had a meaningful relationship with Devon. He only wished that he could say the same thing for himself. Before he could wistfully cogitate on his sister's love, he became aware of Sarah nudging him in the side. A discrete glance to her told him nothing, so he decided that she wanted him to move.

"Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to bump into you," he apologized to her as he took a step back to give her some space. He faintly registered a look of surprise on her face. **(1) **She gave him some sort of meaningful glance and jerked her head to Ellie and Awesome.

"So, anything else on the agenda?" he asked the two. Sarah huffed, but Chuck wasn't really paying attention to her. He didn't know what she was getting at, so he assumed that she wanted him to talk.

"How about we go back to our place for a drink? The night's still young, bro," Devon answered.

Any further discussion was derailed when a scientist dosed with deadly truth serum and secret launch codes stumbled onto the scene.

* * *

"Alright, where is it?" Casey growled.

Riordan Payne was still howling in agony from where Sarah shot him in the knee. He gave them a vicious glare, but still said nothing.

"Listen, Payne," Chuck began. "I think it's in your best interests to tell us where the real antidote is. My bosses, my real bosses..." Chuck was stumbling with his compulsion to tell the truth and to keep from revealing himself "...who happen to be in the government, would not like it if I died. I've got some really important information and programming skills that are needed by a lot of people." It was extremely difficult for Chuck to control what he blurted out. He was trying to stay vague and put in a lot of inconsequential details to mask any major revelations. "My bosses also include the people at Roark Industries." He bit his tongue to halt any further revelations. "They would be really pissed at you because-"

"Will you shut it, Bartowski? I don't need to put up with more of your inane rambling when I'm around you for this long. And you're giving me a headache." Casey turned his attention back to Payne. "Now, before this moron decides to spew anymore verbal diarrhea, where are the codes?" He cocked his gun to emphasize the threat.

Luckily for Chuck, Sarah and Casey weren't paying too much attention to Chuck's rambling monologue. It was a habit both of them had developed to filter out most of what Chuck said unless he presented them with relevant information.

Finally, they got the antidotes and were about to take them. Chuck and Sarah were facing each other, and Chuck found that this might be a good time to find out the truth of her feelings for him.

"Wait, wait, wait, not yet, not yet."

"Why? What's the matter?"

"Nothing, it's just that…this will probably be the last chance that I have to know the truth. I…know you're just doing your job here, but sometimes it feels so real, you know? So, tell me. You and me…us. Our thing under the undercover thing. Is this ever going anywhere?"

"I'm sorry, Chuck. No."

"Got it. Got it. Thank you for being honest. Even though I guess you don't really have a choice in the matter."

Before Chuck could say anything more, she chugged her antidote.

* * *

It was too close. She was getting too close to Chuck. Sure, he was nice, funny, smart, handsome, and considerate, but he was still her asset. Sarah really liked him, but she was finding it harder to keep her distance, and objectivity. It was unsettling how she was starting to feel herself get drawn to him.

Sarah shifted up another gear and swerved around the car that was going too slow in front of her. She then executed a powerslide around a corner and a couple of daredevil moves to try to release the weird tension she was feeling. A bootlegger reverse and stomp on the brakes ended with her parked in a space in front of Casey's apartment.

Sitting in the seat for a minute helped her realize that she was still feeling tense and anxious about nearly telling Chuck about her feelings about him. Feelings that were still confusing her. She decided to put off finding out what those feelings and thoughts really meant, and went in for the meeting.

* * *

"So the agent should be there in a couple of minutes to pick up the launch codes," Beckman finished. Casey and Sarah had already shooed Chuck home so that they could take care of the debriefing.

"Is there anything else that you think is necessary to share?" Graham continued.

"No sir. That's it on my side," Sarah said.

"No. As far as our knowledge goes, everything has been taken care of," Casey concurred.

"Good job then, agents." With that, Beckman and Graham terminated the feed.

A knock at the door prompted Casey to go over and check who it might be. "I don't think I can go bowling tonight, but I can lend you my ball." Casey winced at the call sign.

"Thanks," said the agent on the other side, "Todd tried to lend me his, but it's the wrong weight."

Satisfied with the return, Casey opened the door and handed the agent the codes. Putting the chip into a briefcase, the agent promptly left.

"I'm glad that's over with. I hate truth serums," Casey growled as he closed the door.

"I don't think anyone likes them. They lower your defenses and make you vulnerable."

"By the way, Walker," Casey started. "Did you say anything that might compromise you?"

"No. Fortunately, I've been trained to withstand the effects of pentathol."

* * *

Chuck watched the exchange on his computer. He had hacked into the surveillance that Casey kept on his own apartment. That way, he could keep a tab on his handlers and report anything relevant to Fulcrum. And to make sure that Chuck didn't arouse any suspicion from Casey and Sarah, he had looped the video surveillance in his own apartment to make it look like he was doing nothing particularly interesting. It was a much better solution than all out blocking the feeds.

A knock on Chuck's door caught his attention. He went over, looked to see who it was, and opened the door. The agent that had picked up the codes was there with a grin on his face.

"Hey, Eric! Come on in. Hurry, before anyone sees you."

Eric walked in and sat down. "Hey, Chuck. I was able to get picked to retrieve the codes, thanks to your brilliant computer skills."

He opened up the briefcase and took out the flash drive that held the codes. Chuck gingerly took it and connected it to his computer. With a couple of button presses, he began downloading the information.

"Thanks, Eric. This will take just a couple of minutes, and then you can continue with your errand boy mission."

"Errand boy?" Eric retorted with mock hurt. "Those are extremely sensitive and dangerous codes that need more than just a mere errand boy to keep them safe. That makes me the ultimate errand boy in the world, equipped with kung fu and loyalty bending super powers."

"Ah, it's done," Chuck said as a tone from the computer signaled the end of its task. "Here you go. Make sure you don't lose it."

"Thanks for that back." Eric put the flash drive back in his case and closed it. "So, what do you intend on doing with it? Are you going to hand it over to Fulcrum?"

"No, not just yet. For now, I'm just going to hang onto it. Who knows when I need a bargaining chip like that."

"And I heard that you and your handlers were exposed to some sort of truth serum. Did you compromise yourself?"

Chuck looked over to the screen that had showed Casey and Sarah at the debriefing. "No. Like Sarah, I also have some resistance training to pentathol. Maybe not as much as her, but just enough. I've got to thank Tommy for that, I almost told Sarah that I was working for Fulcrum."

* * *

**(1) **This is what I wish had actually happened on the show. Chuck being oblivious to the romantic stuff he should be doing strikes me as funny.


	6. Complications and Uncomplications

_Disclaimer: I don't own Chuck or any characters from his show. I also want to thank PJ Murphy for the beta work on this chapter._

Chapter 6: Complications and Uncomplications

Before the stack of papers could fall over, Ariel grabbed them and reshuffled them to another spot on her desk. Hurriedly looking through some other reports, she began dumping papers into her briefcase. With that done, she shot a quick glance at Chuck.

"Well, honey. It sounds like you just need to ask her. Talk about the do's and don'ts of your cover. Make sure you know what the boundaries are so you don't get compromised. Also keep in mind that she is a threat to Fulcrum. If you were a trained agent, it might be easier for you to deal with this situation. Oh, can you be a dear and hand me my jacket on the hook over there? No, the other one."

Chuck handed Ariel her jacket and grabbed her cup of coffee for her. She gave him a smile and ruffled his hair. "Thanks, hun. I've got to get going. It's my turn for carpool duty today, and I've also got to get Jamie to tennis practice."

"Yeah, I understand. But I'm still really appreciative of any time you can spare me in your busy schedule," Chuck said. He pushed the elevator button for her when she tried to push it with her stiletto heel, seeing that her hands were full.

"Once again you swoop in to save me," she smirked at him.

"Of course! I come to the aid of any fair damsel in distress," Chuck replied with that grin Ariel always liked to see. "And if you ever tire of the life of drudgery and toil behind a desk and the wheel of a minivan, I can whisk you away to experience the most heavenly of earthly delights!" Chuck finished that with the patented Bartowski Eyebrow Dance.

A hearty laugh emanated from Ariel's mouth. "Oh, Chuck. If I was about twenty years younger, I just might take you up on your offer. But for now, I can only offer what I can give you in teacher mode."

The elevator dinged and they both got on. Ariel turned to Chuck and started on her spiel. "Back when I was doing the lion's share of assignments, I always put all of my focus on them. But even though my priorities were on the job, I still made sure to make time for myself. Yes, that included sex. Indeed there was one assignment where I had to pose as an asset's girlfriend for a couple of months. We did what we had to maintain our cover, but there was no way I was going to halt my romantic needs. And I had no interest in him. So I, of course, kept on with my own activities. Now if you do that, you just have to be careful. Be transparent in your desires with your handler, and just go for it. Life is too short to put your life on hold. What I learned is that in a long term assignment like you have with your CIA girl, your cover is adjustable. Just tell everyone that you broke up, but are still friends."

"It's just difficult. She is a great woman and in some other lifetime, I could see myself going for her. But she's not interested, or to be more precise, she doesn't want to be interested. And I'm not sure if she would put a bullet in my head if I slipped up. I'm enticed and repelled at the same time."

"You sound conflicted, so I will give you some very firm advice. Break up your cover and try to sort out your feelings. You should not get too close to her, so a break could help keep up that distance. However, try to be friends. That is a safer option for your sanity and cover. I just want what's best for you _and_ the company."

The elevator let them off at the ground floor and Chuck walked her to her car. He bade her goodbye after she gave him a lollipop. Ariel was one of his role models because she had it all. She was one of the best double agents in the CIA and Fulcrum. She eventually retired from field work and the CIA, and now has a comfortable desk job that allowed her to have a family. And Chuck couldn't help but think of her as a surrogate mom.

As Chuck walked back to his office to continue coding for the new Intersect, he pondered the best way to approach the situation with Sarah.

* * *

"You want to break up?"

"Well, I want to fake break up our fake relationship. I realized a couple of things when we were under the truth serum. I think I had a pretty decent life until the Intersect got dumped in my head. This is a burden I have to bear, but that does not mean I have to stop pursuing my dreams. One of my dreams is to find a woman to share my life with, and I am not going to have that if I am pretending to have a relationship with you. And I don't want you to put a hold on any part of your life either on account of me."

"Chuck, it's my job to be in your life to protect you. That means I need access to you at any time without raising suspicions," Sarah replied as she shot him a frosty look over her drink. Chuck fidgeted in his chair, wondering if he could just bolt for RI across the square.

"Sarah, you could do that just as well if we were friends. It would be a lot easier for the both of us. And you know where I am most of the time, anyway. Please?"

Sarah pondered him for a moment before nodding her head and giving a small smile. "Alright. I think I can stand being friends with you."

* * *

"Oh, come on. She was hot. And we didn't get a chance to really know each other."

"Yeah, well, we decided that it would just be easier this way. Things weren't really sparking, and we thought that friends would be better for us."

Morgan turned around and bonked his head on the surface of the Nerd Herd desk. His frustration at Chuck getting another beautiful woman and not settling down with her was a bit annoying. He liked that he was not getting as much competition for Chuck's attention, but he thought it was a waste of Chuck's talent for attracting gorgeous women. If _he _was Chuck, he would know how to use those talents most effectively.

"Please help me. My phone died or something, and my whole life is on it," a cute brunette damseled in distress. Of course, Chuck had to swoop in and save her.

* * *

"I don't like it. Breaking up will unnecessarily complicate matters. It's difficult enough keeping an eye on him when he's at work, but now he's even further from our watch? We can't have a wild card asset doing whatever he wants where we can't keep tabs on him. Get him under control; what are we paying you for?" Beckman was most definitely not pleased. Graham, just as much.

"Agent Walker, impress upon him that it is for his own protection that he has you around as a handler. The Intersect is far too important to be left unattended. Reestablish your cover, it is the best way to handle the situation," Graham finished with a frown.

"That might be a little complicated to do since the asset has moved on to someone else," Casey cut in, trying to hide a smirk. "Soon after he dumped Walker, he started dating a civilian."

Sarah turned to him in surprise. "What? When did this happen?"

"And that is why you need to get him back under control. You can't be surprised by revelations like these," Graham grumped.

Sarah flushed a bit at being so out of the loop. "Yes sir. I will do what I can to watch him. Starting with a thorough background check on this new girl."

Casey couldn't resist the dig. "Are you sure you're not jealous about him dumping you?"

* * *

Chuck took one more moment to straighten out his hair before picking up Lou for their date. He failed and decided his hair was going to keep doing what it wanted, despite his efforts to fix it.

A knock on his door drew his attention. He walked over and looked through the peephole. Seeing Sarah, he opened the door with a fair amount of confusion. The look on her face was discomfortingly neutral.

"Hey, Sarah. What brings you here? I'm on my way out, but you can walk with me to my car. You know, make sure no one tries to kidnap me," he tried to joke awkwardly. Sarah was still frustratingly blank, but she followed him as he went on his way.

"Chuck, we have to talk. About our cover."

"I thought we already went over this? We can be cover friends. It will allow you to stay close to me, but not in a way that will keep us from having our own lives." A feeling of exasperation and defensiveness welled up in Chuck. He liked Sarah, but he was trying to keep his distance for a lot of reasons. Now it seemed that she was trying to horn back in, which would put him back in a bad situation.

"Chuck, you are very valuable-"

"You mean the Intersect is very valuable," Chuck cut in. He felt like a jerk, but also felt justified.

"It's not just that. Listen…" Sarah paused for a moment and tried to gather her thoughts. This conversation was turning into a minefield, and she was running in without a metal detector. "It is my job to make sure you are safe. I understand you might be feeling invaded and trapped with the CIA and NSA keeping close tabs on you, but it is for your safety. Not only are we focused on your well-being, but there is valuable government information in your head. We have to keep that safe as well."

Chuck nodded. "I know that, Sarah. I know you just want to keep me safe, but I still want to have my own life. Also, a little semblance of privacy would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your dedication, but nobody else knows I'm the Intersect."

They reached the garage and were close to Chuck's car. Sarah wanted to finish things up and try to go toward reestablishing their cover before Chuck left for his date. Unfortunately, she was facing desperate circumstances.

"I have been ordered to reestablish our dating cover. It is the best way to keep you protected-"

"I'm seeing someone already," Chuck cut in with what felt like a cold tone of finality to Sarah. "I'll see you tomorrow, buddy."

He got in his car and sped off. Sarah felt disappointment, frustration, and a bit of anger at how this was all getting handled.

"That could have gone better."

* * *

"You know, I haven't been on such a great date in a while. I'm really enjoying the night. And I hope you're enjoying the sandwich," Lou said. She was relaxing against the counter with satisfaction as she watched Chuck savor the sandwich.

"I'm having a great time myself. You have got to have an amazing palette to pull such incredible sandwiches off. Actually, the whole package is quite enticing."

Chuck finished the sandwich and wiped his hands with a napkin. He walked over to Lou and took her in his arms. He was nuzzling her neck when he happened to look up and catch a symbol on a bulletin board on the wall.

The G-Intersect kicked in and hammered him with information on one Stavros Demetrios. He seized up a bit in his usual reaction, hoping Lou wouldn't notice.

"Chuck, is something wrong?" she asked as she stepped back to get a good look at him.

Chuck shook the effects of the flash off and tried to cover. "Oh, I'm good. I was just about to sneeze, but I didn't. And I was hoping not to break the romance of the scene for that."

As they continued their date, Chuck used the F-Intersect to search for any information on Stavros Demetrios. It took a while to get the F-Intersect booted up, but one of its best features was multitask. That meant that Chuck could use that while he was focusing on Lou. About an hour later, he got a comprehensive report on Demetrios.

* * *

"So here's what I'm thinking. The use of the G-Intersect could be to provide broad stroke facts of the information. Something that needs to be known immediately; the most pertinent information at an instant. That could trigger the F-Intersect to work up a more comprehensive profile that could provide more details."

"So the G-Intersect is for instant action, the F-Intersect for further analysis?" Ted asked.

"Something like that. They both have their strengths and weaknesses, but I think we work on a happy medium. I think it should all be about the brute strength basics of the G-Intersect with the finesse and detail of the F-Intersect," Chuck replied.

Tom Varnes had a troubled look on his face. "So are we trying to duplicate the G-Intersect, or are we going to making a whole new Intersect that utilizes features from both? I mean, it's difficult to get either of them to work in one person. We've been trying that. But to make a whole new one? How many people can handle that? That is aside from you, Chuck?"

"It sounds like there are logistics issues with both ideas. We need this computer to be more inclusive, not exclusive," Ted finished with a bit of a grump.

Chuck sighed. "Yeah, we're working on that."

"And what about Stavros? What did you find out about him?"

"He's an independent shipper who works with us. We're one of his clients, and he is shipping something for us. Our package should arrive tonight. Tommy is heading this operation."

"Okay then. It seems like we shouldn't get involved then. Right, Chuck?"

"Don't worry, Ted. I haven't told Sarah or Casey anything about it. Besides, it's nothing dangerous."

* * *

"Careful with that!" Tommy yelled as his underlings took crowbars to the massive crate. He turned his attention back to his phone and checked the manifesto on what should be inside. The boom of the side falling drew his attention back.

The people started unpacking the crate and Tommy went through checking everything off.

"Tommy! We think we found something!" a thug shouted out.

Tommy made his way into the shipping container and saw what the deal was. It looked like a bunch of rags, clothing, food wrappers, and empty water bottles. Before he could think further on this scene, the sound of gunfire drew Tommy running back outside.

He pulled his gun and surveyed the scene. What he saw was Bryce Larkin giving a smirk and a wave as he drove Tommy's car off.


	7. Stirring Things Up

_Disclaimer: I do not own Chuck or any of the other characters from Chuck. Also, I want to thank PJ Murphy for betaing this chapter. I hope with the revamps it has undergone, it will be good enough. _

Chapter 7: Stirring Things Up

It was a beautiful day outside. The sky was cloudless; the temperature at just the right point where one could comfortably wear or not wear a jacket. The early morning sun was brightening up the day in the small park beside Chuck's apartment building.

Chuck had some time before he had to go to work, so he was testing the multitasking capabilities of the F-Intersect. He was working out some wiring logistics with the computer at RI, analyzing his performance last night on _Call of Duty_, mocking up a new cooling system for the Intersect room, trying to figure out a way to get a happy medium between the F and G-Intersects, and a couple of other things that needed his attention.

He was using a lot of attention and brainpower for all of the programs and lines of thinking he was pursuing. He was absolutely still, with a glazed look in his eyes and a cooling cup of coffee in hand. As such, he didn't notice Bryce come up to him.

"Chuck. Hey, Chuck!" Bryce waved a hand in Chuck's face.

Chuck looked up and saw Bryce. The F-Intersect was using so much of his mental resources that he couldn't think of how to respond to a supposed dead man that worked for the CIA standing in front of him.

"Bryce?" he answered not-so-shrewdly.

"Yes, it's me. Listen, I don't have a lot of time, but you have to know that I am not a traitor," Bryce said when he saw Chuck give little response. He didn't pause to think about Chuck's non-reaction, chalking it up to shock at seeing him alive.

"Guh..." Chuck replied intelligently. He didn't quite have the presence of mind to realize he should try to get back to the outside world. However, he was able to put some thought into the situation.

_Bryce is alive? Am I supposed to already know that? I know he's not Fulcrum, but the government thinks he is. Am I supposed to think that, too? This cover is getting confusing. Bryce is trying to tell me something. How do I maintain the cover in this situation? Should I be freaked out over him being here? _

Unable to come up with anything else, Chuck stood up. He tried to close a couple of programs while listening to Bryce.

"…and it's because of all of the stuff I've been doing. I mean, I got too close. So I was ordered to steal the Intersect as per Operation Sand Wall."

The term _Operation Sand Wall_ activated the G-Intersect. However, with the F-Intersect still in heavy use, the two Intersects clashed. The F-Intersect was force closed by the G-Intersect, losing some information and coming up with what Chuck perceived as error messages. The G-Intersect bounded around in his brain, but kept ramming into F-Intersect operations. It short circuited and wreaked havoc on Chuck's functioning.

Chuck staggered at the violent clash of the two Intersects. His brain told him he was spinning around in circles and that he was actually upside down while his body fell to the ground. He vaguely registered Bryce yelling something as he lost consciousness.

* * *

Chuck slowly came to in the passenger seat of a car. He blearily looked to his left and saw Bryce driving. Chuck felt fuzzy and nauseous, and the car ride wasn't doing anything to counteract that. Bryce noticed his old friend was waking up and gave a small smile.

"Hey, sorry about that. Was it something I said?" He gave Chuck a charming smile.

"Gkhs," Chuck gurgled in reply. He brought himself into a more upright position in his seat. The movement made his stomach roil.

"Is it always that bad?" Bryce asked, looking at Chuck in concern.

"Ugh, not always."

"Alright. Listen, I have to explain a lot of things to you."

"Great. Exposition," Chuck muttered, trying to get a hold of himself. The nausea took control again, which made Chuck lean over and vomit on Bryce's lap.

"Eww, gross! Why did you do that?" Bryce couldn't do too much since he was driving on the freeway. The car swerved a bit, but he was able to get it back under control.

"I didn't want to throw up on _myself_. And besides, you kind of deserve it, jackhole," Chuck grumped, feeling a bit better.

"Are you still upset about Stanford? Because either way, you seem to be doing pretty well for yourself."

"Yeah, I kind of am." His head cleared up, and he was able to think. _What does Bryce know? Does he know I'm with Fulcrum, or is he just making sure the Intersect is safe? I've got to figure that out. But first off, where is he taking me? _"Hold on a minute, are you trying to kidnap me?"

"No, I'm not," Bryce gritted out, still squirming from having Chuck puke in his lap.

"Then where are you taking me? Let me get in contact with someone." While he was talking, Chuck reached into his pocket to press the panic button on his phone. It wasn't there.

"Sorry, Chuck. I have your phone. As I said, I need to talk to you and Sarah, and that would be better accomplished if you didn't freak out and call the cavalry before I could explain things. I need all of you to know that I am not with Fulcrum. Did the Intersect have anything on that?"

Bryce tried to keep his eyes on the road, but he was kind of distracted by the fact that his lap was covered in vomit. And he didn't have anything to clean himself off with. Chuck, meanwhile, tried to think back to Operation Sandwall.

_Man, that was quite a flash. I've never had the two Intersects go at the same time before. Now I know what happens at that. Huh, I don't remember too much about the flash. But I have the vague sense Bryce is innocent. The G-Intersect knew that, but I knew that anyway. I should act surprised, though. Relieved, too...What else happened this morning? I remember waking up and having breakfast, and Bryce was there somewhere..._

"Well?" Bryce interrupted Chuck's thoughts.

"Er, yeah. It was a mission to protect the Intersect, right? You did it on the government's orders," Chuck threw out. He used the F-Intersect to find the information on what the G-Intersect had turned up from the flash.

A slight release of tension in Bryce's shoulders showed as he felt some relief at the thought of getting off the hook. "Yes, yes. You're awesome, man."

"Yeah, I'm wonderful," Chuck murmured as the F-Intersect found nothing. Most of the pertinent data was erased when the G-Intersect decided to go _Hulk smash!_ on his mind. "Oh, and sorry about getting sick all over you. And the possible damage to the car."

Bryce grunted. "Not too worried about the car. It's not mine."

"Really? Whose is it?"

"The guy that was trying to recruit me to Fulcrum. Tommy Delgado," Bryce said with the ghost of a victorious smile.

_Crap, this is Tommy's car?_ Chuck thought to himself as he looked around. _This must be the '67 Camaro he's been restoring and can't shut up about. He is going to be pissed at me._

* * *

Chuck and Bryce arrived at Casey's apartment in short order. They figured that it would be safe, and that Casey had the place rigged to alert him to any intruders. That would be enough to get Sarah and him there.

"Alright, they're probably on their way now. Is there anything you want to tell me?" Chuck asked.

"Not quite yet. I'd rather wait for everyone to get here so I don't have to repeat myself. Just get them ready to listen. I have to clean myself up," Bryce ended with a slight glare. Chuck only shrugged sheepishly.

"Hold on, can you give me my cell phone back? I need to call work and tell them I'm late."

Bryce reached into his pocket and tossed it to Chuck. When Bryce closed the bathroom door, Chuck sent a message to Ted. He held it close to him to make sure no cameras picked up the message.

_Im w Bryce Larkin. Ill see what he knows_

Chuck finished and quickly put his cell back in his pocket as Bryce stepped out of the bathroom looking cleaner than before. At that moment, Casey and Sarah burst in with guns drawn. Before Chuck could say anything, Casey shot Bryce.

"BRYCE!" Chuck and Sarah shouted as Bryce fell over from the impact.

Chuck collapsed into a nearby chair at the sight of someone actually getting shot in front of him. Sarah ran over to Bryce's side. He stirred and looked up at Casey. He opened his shirt up to show the bulletproof vest underneath.

"Sorry that you can't kill me again, Casey?" Bryce asked in a mocking, but pained, tone.

"How about I put one right between your eyes? That should make sure you're dead," Casey growled out.

"Casey, wait!" Chuck shouted. He got his and Sarah's attention. "Don't shoot him. I had a flash about the mission he was on. He's not Fulcrum."

"Well then," Casey said with his gun still trained on Bryce. "You better start talking before my finger gets itchy again."

"Alright, I'll tell you as much as I can," Bryce answered as Sarah helped him to his feet.

"You'll tell us everything since you're still a traitor to this country."

"I was approached by Fulcrum agent a few months ago. I played along to find out what they wanted. But what they wanted was for me to steal a government computer. I'm sure you know the one. I talked to my bosses in the CIA, and they tasked me with keeping the Intersect out of Fulcrum's grasp. So I sent it to Chuck."

"So you tried to protect the Intersect by sending it to me?" Chuck asked. _Talk about irony_, he thought.

"I would have contacted you sooner, but Casey messed that up by trying to kill me," Bryce said as he glared at his shooter. Casey grunted back with zero remorse.

"How did you survive?" Sarah finally asked. She was looking at Bryce with a mixture of disbelief, relief, and confusion. She was relieved Bryce was alive, but didn't completely believe his story. Having some distance from their entangled past gave her a sense of distrust towards him.

"A couple of Fulcrum agents took me and demanded I tell them where the Intersect was." He grinned a bit at the memory. "I told them it was in my head. They had me patched up in Germany. But then…" Bryce looked troubled at the next thing.

"What happened? If they thought you were the Intersect, they would have tried to capture you, right?" Sarah asked.

"I thought that, but then I overheard my Fulcrum handler, Tommy Delgado, talking about exterminating me. I don't know too much of the specifics, but I got out of there as quick as I could and did some investigating."

"Well, out with it, Larkin. We don't have all day," Casey grumped, still irritated Bryce wasn't dead.

"I'm getting there. So, as I was saying, I did some checking around. What I found was that they were tracking a shipment of computer equipment."

Chuck's eyes went wide, and his insides went cold. "Computer equipment?"

"Yes, Chuck," Bryce said, giving Chuck an intense look. "Equipment that was to be sent to Roark Industries."

Chuck's heart skipped a beat, and his mouth went dry. If Bryce knew that Chuck was Fulcrum, he would have done something about that sooner, maybe. He forced himself to be calm to deflect any suspicion. "What?" He mentally kicked himself.

"Fulcrum was tracking a shipment of computer parts for Roark Industries, the place you work at." Bryce's face was blank but intense. Chuck wasn't getting any cues on what Bryce's suspicions might be. No wonder he could never beat his former roommate in poker when they played in the fraternity.

_I need to take control of the conversation. If I can come up with a reason for Fulcrum to be interested in RI, then they would take that track up. And it would deflect any suspicion from me and RI. _"Roark Industries is in the business of creating bleeding edge technology. And I believe we have a plant somewhere in Europe, most likely Germany. Perhaps Fulcrum is interested in taking some of our equipment, which is far away from getting any sort of release. This stuff is highly advanced, and we are keeping it under tight wrap for fear of a security leak."

Chuck clasped his hands together to hide the fact they were shaking and struck a thoughtful pose.

"Chuck, do you know what this equipment is capable of? Why would Fulcrum want it?" Sarah asked.

Chuck was glad she said that. It was great she chose to be on his side. She wasn't suspicious of him, and helped steer the conversation away from anything that might have gotten too uncomfortable for Chuck. That was one of the reasons he liked her. She always had his best interests in mind.

Chuck knew he had to continue that wave of thought so he could keep control of the conversation and allay suspicion.

"I'm not sure what that shipment was, but I can check," Chuck said with a growing confidence. "It's possible Fulcrum might be trying to sabotage the hardware or take it for their own purposes."

"Chuck…" Bryce tried to cut in.

Chuck barreled forward. "This would be bad news. If our next-generation equipment gets in the hands of Fulcrum, who knows what they could do."

"There's also the possibility…" Bryce said before Chuck cut him off again.

"That means I've got to get to RI as quick as possible. I'll call you when I find out."

"Chuck, wait!" Bryce shouted. He grabbed Chuck's arm so that he wouldn't go. "There's a possibility Fulcrum knows who you are. You're not safe."

Chuck couldn't let them stop him. He decided to just bull on and hope for the best. "I'll be safe at RI. Besides, Casey and Sarah are going to be covering the building. I have to find out what that shipment is so that we can see whether that is the reason for Fulcrum to be interested in it."

"Hold on…"

"I am going, Bryce. Sarah and Casey are the best; they will ensure I'm fine. We'll get to the bottom of this."

Chuck didn't give him much of a chance to respond, or think about the situation, as he ran out the door with Casey and Sarah hot on his heels to catch their wayward asset.

* * *

A/N: There was a lot of talking in this chapter, but the next is going to have a lot more action. Now we're going to see if Chuck can stay a step ahead of his handlers in this rather perilous situation. And please review, whether you like it or hate it. I like to know that I have an audience to write to. Thanks for your time.


	8. HalfCocked

_Disclaimer: I don't own Chuck or any of the other characters from the show. _

_A/N: Thanks to PJ Murphy for betaing this chapter. I hope you enjoy, and don't forget to review._

Chapter 8: Half-Cocked

Chuck jumped out of his car as soon as he parked and started towards the elevator in the parking structure for Roark Industries. He was trying to get in as soon as possible so none of his handlers could catch up to him and try to figure things out.

_If I can just keep them off-kilter and following me, they won't be able to raise any suspicions. I just have to talk to Ted and come up with a plan to keep them off our tracks. Why does our parking garage have to be so big and far away from the building? I should ask Ted about parking privileges for high level programmers._

"Chuck, wait!" Sarah shouted behind him.

Chuck barely glanced behind him before redoubling his speed. He heard squealing tires nearby, probably from Casey or Bryce parking a car.

"I'm sorry, Sarah, but I have to get to RI! I have no time to waste if I'm going to keep Fulcrum away from my company!"

He felt a hard tug on his arm as Sarah caught up with him. Chuck struggled to get away, but she grabbed his face and forced him to look at her.

"Chuck…"

He cut her off. "Sarah, I have to find the connection between RI and Fulcrum. Do you have any idea what kind of position I'm in? They cannot know I'm the Intersect. They can't!" he shouted. He was feeling desperation and fear from being made, so he used that to fuel his performance.

"Listen…"

"No Sarah, you listen. I need to know what Fulcrum wants with RI. We could be in trouble in so many different ways if Fulcrum is trying to steal our technology, or do horrible things _to_ it." Chuck paused to collect himself and go into a more personal performance. He had to get the impact right so that Sarah would believe him. "I also have to make sure that I'm still safe so that I'm not thrown into a bunker or captured or worse. If they connected me here...I have to do this! Not only for Roark Industries' good, but mine as well."

He grabbed her arms and looked into her eyes, silently pleading for her to believe him. She gripped his arms back, giving him an intense look of her own.

"Chuck," she started, hoping he wouldn't cut her off this time, "I know you're scared. There are a lot of reasons why Fulcrum might be interested in RI, but we don't know what they are yet. We have to be careful. We have to take a moment and come up with a plan." Sarah put her hand on his cheek and gave him a determined look. "You just have to trust…"

Chuck's ringtone cut her off this time. He reached into his pocket, took it out, and saw Lou's picture. Sarah looked surprised and miffed, especially when he answered it.

"Lou? I…"

Sarah grabbed the phone out of his hand and put it to her ear. "Listen, we're really busy now, so call back later. You can talk to him when I'm done with him."

_"Who is this? I want to talk to Chuck."_

"This is Sarah."

_"His ex?"_

"Yeah. Call back later."

She hung up and looked back at Chuck, who stared in utter disbelief.

"Did you just…"

Before he could finish, another squeal of tires behind him showed themselves to be a car going around the corner at high speed and power slid to a stop right behind Chuck. Chuck barely had time to process that he should have jumped or been scared shitless when Tommy popped out of the driver's side door and trained his gun on them.

"Don't move, and put your hands in the air," he menaced.

Sarah put her hands in the air with a snarl on her face. Chuck looked to her, back to Tommy, and put his hands up as well.

"Are you a programmer at Roark Industries?" Tommy asked Chuck.

"Y-yeah. I'm actually head programmer and engineer of the next-gen division."

Tommy smirked in triumph. "Good. Get in the car. The door is unlocked."

"Um, I always thought it was a bad idea to get into strangers' cars."

"Get in before I shoot you both and drag _you_ in here.

"Alright, alright. I'll get in. Just please don't shoot us," Chuck pleaded.

"Then get in, _now_. And Blondie, get down on the ground."

Sarah begrudgingly got down on the ground. She watched with impotent anger as Chuck was coerced into the car. He looked back at her with a helpless look on his face as he closed the door. The car sped off with her hostage asset.

* * *

Chuck gave a sigh of relief as he sunk into the passenger seat. He glanced over at Tommy, who was racing away to only he knew where.

"Tommy, what…" he began before he was interrupted.

"First off, what happened to my car? I just finished painting it, and if Larkin did something to mess her up, so help me..." Tommy trailed off, a look of fury on his face.

Chuck flattened himself into his seat as much as he could, not wanting to reveal the possible damage. "Um, I wasn't really paying too much to the condition of the car, but it should be generally okay," he hedged.

"Okay? Is that all you can say?" The edge continued to rise in Tommy's voice.

Chuck decided there were more pressing manners to attend to. "Tommy, I need you to focus. What is the plan?"

Tommy took two breaths to calm himself and slipped back into his job. "Right. I got word from Ted that Larkin had captured you. There was a possibility Larkin might have made a connection between Fulcrum and Roark, so I was tasked to hunt you down and 'capture' you to throw the CIA off our track. I was impressed you were able to play along so well."

"Thanks. So what's the plan now?" Chuck was really hoping there was a plan.

"Well, we're kind of making this up as we go. But before we get to that, what did Larkin reveal?"

"Well, um, I'm not really sure what Bryce knows. He knows that Fulcrum is interested in RI's next-gen computer parts. I was trying to put a story out for my handlers on why that is. I didn't really let Bryce say anything." Chuck wasn't sure if that was the right thing to do. Looking back now, it might have been a good idea to actually find out what Bryce knew.

"So you don't know what they know?" Tommy asked with some irritation.

"No, but I already started a sort of narrative on what the situation might be. I told them since RI has such advanced equipment, Fulcrum might be interested in using it to build something. Or possibly do something to it. I was trying to make them play catch up instead of connect-the-dots."

"And when I 'captured' you, I fed more into that story by asking whether you were just a programmer."

"Yeah," Chuck said, glad that they were more or less on the same page. "So what's the next step?"

* * *

"Exit here and turn left," Sarah said while she consulted her Chuck Tracker.

Casey swerved his Crown Vic around another slow moving vehicle. He took the off ramp and actually ran a red light to get to the next road.

"Alright, Larkin, what more do you know? What is Fulcrum after?" he snarled to the agent in the back seat.

Bryce sat in the back, deep in contemplation. "I already told you all I know. Fulcrum was tracking a shipment of computer parts that belong to Roark. Chuck works at Roark. And Sarah said that Tommy asked him if he was a programmer, right?"

Sarah nodded. "Yes. I'm not sure if he specifically knew who Chuck was. I mean, what are the chances that whomever Tommy randomly chose in the parking garage was a programmer at a high enough level to know what to do with the shipment? Turn right up ahead."

"There's too much we don't know," Casey chipped in as he made the turn. "Let's focus now on rescuing Bartowski. We can interrogate everyone after that happens."

"He seems to be in the third warehouse on the left. Let's park here, grab our equipment, and do some recon," Sarah said.

Casey parked and the three agents got out. They equipped themselves and made their way to the warehouse. With a couple of hand gestures, they communicated their moves and broke off. Casey went left, Sarah went right, and Bryce went up.

* * *

"_I've got two guards by the side entrance. I'm going to take them down,_" Sarah said over the radio.

"Alright," Bryce responded from his. "I've gained access through a window, and I'm making my way around a catwalk. I've got Chuck in my sight. He's sitting at a table, the shipment is beside him, and Tommy is behind him. I see a couple of thugs positioned at the egresses and by the shipment. I'm going to try to get closer and see what's happening.

Bryce made his way around the perimeter and got the drop on a guard below him. He snuck his way behind a pillar and saw another guard. A couple of steps got him right behind the guard and allowed him to take the guard out with a sleeper hold. The next guard had his head smashed into a wall. He made his way behind the corner of a shipping container beside Chuck and Tommy. They appeared to be having a heated conversation, but Bryce couldn't make out what they were saying. Chuck had a couple of computer components on a table hooked up to each other in a mess in front of him. He roughly pushed them away and tried to stand up but promptly sank back down when Tommy pulled a gun on him. Bryce decided this was the moment to act.

"You better point that gun somewhere else, Tommy," Bryce said as he stepped out of his hiding place and pointed his gun at his adversary.

"Bryce!" Chuck shouted with relief.

"Chuck, you alright?" Bryce asked while keeping an eye on Tommy.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I've just been answering questions and trying to jury-rig these parts to his specifications. Are Casey and Sarah with you?"

"Chuck! Ixn-ay on the artnersp-ay," Bryce cautiously hissed.

"I-ay anc-ay eaksp-ay igp-ay atinl-ay oot-ay," Tommy sneered.

Tommy lunged behind Chuck and grabbed him in a choke hold. Chuck tumbled back from being knocked off-balance and grabbed Tommy's arm, trying to relieve the pressure on his throat.

At the same time, gunfire erupted outside. Bryce ignored it and focused on the two in front of him. Tommy slowly moved towards the door, his hand firmly around Chuck's throat while using him as a human shield against Bryce.

"Let him go, and I won't shoot," Bryce commanded. He took a step forward, trying to get a bead on Tommy.

"Really? I don't think so," Tommy replied with an infuriating smirk on his face. "I'm going to have to bring him with me, at least until I can get away. So why don't you follow me helplessly outside while your partners are distracted by my men."

Tommy reached the door with Chuck in tow. He shoved Chuck at Bryce and bolted through the door. Bryce caught Chuck and quickly checked him over to make sure he was alright.

"Ow! Hold on, Bryce. I think I just hurt my ankle." Chuck held onto Bryce tightly and balanced his weight on one foot. "I'm not sure how bad it is. It might be something, or it might be nothing. Can you help me to the chair?"

"Can you get there yourself?" Bryce asked with some irritation. Even though Chuck might be hurt, he was wasting time helping him while Tommy got away.

"I don't know. Let me just test it a bit."

Chuck put some weight on his foot and gave a slight gasp. After a couple of tries, he seemed to be good enough to walk. He maintained a firm grip on Bryce and leaned a lot of his weight on him.

"I think I'm fine, actually." Chuck looked up to see the look on Bryce's face. "Oh! Did you, I mean did I...Oh, I'm sorry. That was really stupid of me. I should have been fine on my own, but I kept you from chasing Tommy. I am _so_ sorry about that."

* * *

"He said, 'We'll always have Omaha.' Do you know what that means?"

Ariel was kneeling in front of her mini fridge, pulling out a carton of milk. She took out two glasses and poured milk for herself and for Chuck.

"My guess is it's a code phrase to meet up somewhere. From what you're telling me, and from what I've been able to observe from afar…"

"Hold on. What do you mean 'observe from afar'?" Chuck looked up with a bit of a shocked expression on his face. Ariel met the look by bopping him on the nose with her pen. He flinched back and she smirked.

"Of course I've been keeping tabs on you, sweetheart. Just like when Ted told me Larkin got you. I was providing backup at the site. And thanks to that little security backdoor you have on Casey's surveillance, I was able to see the debriefing." She walked over to the couch and patted the seat next to her. "Oh, and take a couple of cookies on the table over there. They're leftovers from the bake sale yesterday."

"Leftovers? You?" Chuck tried to say around a full mouth.

"You know me, sweetie. I like to make sure I have some for everyone, including at work. I faced stiff competition from Peta Terrence's cupcakes and was considering sabotage. However, I decided my victory would be so much sweeter if I beat her on skill alone."

"Okay. So, back to Sarah and everyone else…"

"Right. From what I can surmise, Bryce is asking Sarah to go with him on his new mission to infiltrate Fulcrum. And she seems kind of conflicted." Ariel let Chuck think about that while she started on her own cookie.

Chuck didn't want to see Sarah go. She was his champion and fought for him. She was an amazing, strong, intelligent, and beautiful woman, and he liked having her in his life. Even if they couldn't be more than what they were. And despite his own reservations toward her.

Ariel watched the interplay of emotions on Chuck's face. She felt sad he was caught between a rock and a hard place right now in so many facets of his life. She wanted to protect him and Fulcrum, even if some solutions might be painful. She reached over and tenderly brushed his curls away from his face. Gently taking his chin in her hand, she turned his head so that he faced her. Chuck's brow furrowed at the apologetic, but understanding, look on her face.

"I know you like her, Chuck, but there is an opportunity here we can't waste."

* * *

Sarah contemplated the half-full suitcase in front of her. She had a stack of tops in her hands, but was debating on whether to put them in.

She was used to a life filled with danger, action, and making decisions in life-or-death situations. Those were things that she could handle. However, those were nothing next to the issues cropping up in Burbank. Her relationship with Chuck was getting too complex for her taste, and she was debating on whether she should leave with Bryce.

Bryce was easy. Straightforward. Safe. She didn't have to worry about him, and they expected little from each other. They were great partners, but there was little emotional investment in each other. Chuck was complicated. She was feeling things she had never felt before concerning him, and that unsettled her. Joining Bryce would be a return to the familiar life she had before getting involved with Chuck.

Unfortunately, that would mean leaving Chuck. He had a kindness and understanding she had never seen before, and she felt drawn to him. She couldn't help but feel something special towards him, even if they were only cover dating…even if they had broken up their cover dating. Chuck was truly a good person at heart, and Sarah had never met someone like that before. It was something she very much wanted to experience more of.

However...there was something off about him. She wasn't sure what it was, but she felt compelled to find more about it.

Before she could think more on her kindly, but mysterious, asset, a knock came at her door. She went over and looked through the peephole before opening it to the person she had just been pondering.

Chuck looked nervous and jittery, but he managed a slight smile. "Can I come in?"

"Sure, yeah," Sarah replied. She allowed Chuck in through the door and closed it behind him. He glanced around and saw the suitcase partially full.

"Were you going somewhere?" he asked. The atmosphere between them felt charged with awkwardness. Sarah didn't know what to say.

"It's okay. I understand," Chuck continued. "You're going with Bryce, right?"

"I wasn't. I mean, I'm not sure," she finished somewhat lamely. She gave him a shrug before wondering if that would do any good. An oppressive silence fell between them. They avoided looking at each other.

"I think you should go," Chuck broke quietly. Sarah's head snapped up to him in surprise. Chuck met her gaze with a sad look of his own. "He's going undercover all by himself. It's going to be extremely dangerous. Despite how good he is, he still needs someone to watch his back. I'm sure you would be happier doing that than babysitting a nerdy asset in Burbank."

Chuck looked back up to meet her still surprised gaze. She was blown away by what he was suggesting. He gave her one more pained look before giving a vague wave and exiting the apartment.

* * *

The ring of her cell phone drew her attention. She checked the caller before answering.

"Walker, secure but in public."

"Agent Walker, what are you doing and where are you going?"

"I'm…I'm going to join Bryce in his mission. He needs all of the help he can get." She heard the section with her seat number called over the terminal intercom. She grabbed her carry-on and walked over to the line to board the plane, ticket in hand.

"Agent Walker, can you please refresh me on your current mission?"

Sarah got a sinking feeling in her stomach. "I was supposed to guard Chuck and follow up on any leads his flashes might yield."

"Exactly. So why exactly are you abandoning your mission? Agent Larkin can take care of himself, but the asset cannot. I also need an agent with him representing CIA interests in the mission. That is why you are supposed to keep a close eye on him. A very close eye. Now get back to your post. There will be a meeting tomorrow morning. You have your orders. Good night."

Graham hung up and Sarah stood there, letting the line pass in front of her. She couldn't identify what she was feeling right now, so she decided to ignore it for now and make her way back to her hotel room. She raced as fast as she could on the evening freeway, trying to get her frustrations out through some stunt maneuvers.

When she reached the hotel, she rented a new room and went up. She entered the new room and threw herself on her bed, punching the pillow in frustration.

* * *

Graham put the phone back on its receiver and leaned back in his chair, steepling his fingers in front of him.

The asset was very averse to his protection detail. It was understandable if an average citizen didn't like his life getting intruded on, but he or she should be able to better forgive it for protection.

Graham decided better surveillance must be kept on the asset. It was for his own protection. And Graham couldn't help but feel slightly suspicious of Bartowski. He felt it in his gut, and he had learned to listen to that feeling to get what his mind missed. Bartowski needed a closer eye kept on him.


	9. FullCocked

_Disclaimer: I don't own Chuck._

_A/N: Wow. Sorry for the wait. I do not have a good excuse. PJ Murphy betaed, so thanks to him. I am already working on the next chapter._

Chapter 9: Full-Cocked

Jill removed her glasses and rubbed her eyes. She had been reading the contents of the flash drive, looking for the hidden code for the past two hours, and the words were starting to jumble together. Sighing, she got up and walked to the other side of the room to get some coffee.

She grumbled with dissatisfaction when she saw the coffee pot was empty. However, she took pleasure in making more coffee to break up the monotony of the work. As she finished loading more water in the machine, there was a knock on the door. She opened it to show Leader on the other side.

"Roberts," he began. "We have a paper on this flash drive that has to be decoded. Get working on it now. Are you done with the previous one?"

"Yes, I'm almost done with the last paper. That's what I've been doing for the past few years." Jill took the flash drive from leader. She hesitated a moment before asking him a question that had been gnawing at her for quite a while. "When can I get back to the lab?"

Leader was been about to leave but turned around and looked at her. "What was that?"

Jill took a moment to summon her courage and continued. "I'm a scientist, and what I'm supposed to be doing is studying and researching important topics in biochemistry. However, I have been stuck traveling the world exchanging and decoding stuff for Fulcrum. I'm not a courier or a code breaker; I'm a scientist. When can I go back to that?" Jill was letting some of the frustration over her recent career come through.

Leader didn't bat an eyelash at her tirade. "Roberts, the embedded codes need someone of your expertise to decipher."

"That's because they're hidden in biology and chemistry papers. Why can't we exchange these the old fashioned way?" Jill waved her arms around vaguely, trying to come up with an example. "With decoder rings, or whatever you used." She cringed at how she ended that.

Leader's lack of expression still didn't change. "We need you doing this."

He promptly turned around and left. Jill closed the door and leaned against it, banging her head in frustration.

* * *

"Do you really think Sarah left?"

Casey looked up from the keyboard to stare at his asset. Chuck was nervously tapping his foot and appeared mildly distraught over the thought.

"I don't know. But if she did, they can always get you another CIA-sanctioned sweetie to guard over you." He turned back to his task as he got ready to set up the videoconference.

"I mean, it's okay if she did go." The statement surprised Casey, but he didn't let that show. "She would have a chance to be with Bryce again and go on kick-ass missions to save the world."

"Don't remind me," Casey muttered under his breath, jealous at the idea. He would have loved to go around on dangerous missions instead of babysitting a nerdy and uncooperative asset.

A knock on the door alerted everyone to Sarah's arrival. She entered with nary a glance at Chuck. She settled in her seat and put on an aloof air.

"Glad you finally made it, Walker," Casey grunted.

"Let's just get this over with," she replied coolly.

* * *

Chuck was putting the finishing touches on the glazed chicken when his phone rang. He picked it up and saw Lou's face on the ID.

"Hey, Lou. I'm nearly finished with dinner. Are you almost here?"

_"Yeah, I'll be there in a couple of minutes. I just wanted you to know, and I'm eager for dinner." _

"It's the least I could do since you fed me last time. I may not be as good of a culinary artist as you, but I have a couple of dishes up my sleeve."

She giggled. _"I'm excited. I'll see you in a few."_

"Alright, see ya! Just come on in when you get here."

They hung up and Chuck continued his dinner preparations. He finished putting the plates on the table and lit a few candles when he heard a knock on his door.

"Wow, when you said a couple of minutes, I didn't think you meant one or two," he said as he opened the door. His eyes widened when he saw Sarah there instead of his date.

She brushed past him into the apartment. Her entire demeanor screamed 'professional' and she regarded him with frustrating neutrality.

"I've been ordered to resume our cover relationship. The latest scare with Fulcrum has made intense surveillance on your wellbeing of paramount importance," Sarah finished. Her tone was even and her face was blank.

"Why? The Fulcrum thing was just bad luck. They don't know who I am, and I don't think they are going to come after me again when there are so many other programmers at Roark. I appreciate your dedication, but I don't think either of us wants to get into another cover relationship."

"I have my orders. Chuck, _please."_ For a moment, Sarah's expression showed how tired and frustrated she was with the situation. Added to that, she didn't like how she was borderline begging. "It would be a _lot_ easier to monitor you if we just had that cover."

"No it won't!" Chuck snapped. "Do you really want to be forced into a meaningless and loveless relationship because of 'orders'? I don't need that much surveillance on me, and I'm already in a relationship."

"Why are you so stubborn about this?" Sarah snapped back. "All you have to do is cooperate, and things would go much more smoothly. Sorry that we're _such _an intrusion on your life and it is _so_ hard for you to pretend to have me as a girlfriend, but tough luck. That's how things are." She was finally unleashing some of the anger she had been feeling. It felt good, and she was just getting warmed up.

"I have already been put into so much trouble since the government started interfering in my life. So you'll forgive me if I'm not exactly feeling happy with how things are. And in case you failed to hear it the first time, I _have_ a girlfriend."

"Then break up with her," Sarah snarled.

"No. She is one of the few normal things in my life, and I am not about to give her up. So I would appreciate it if you and the government would butt out of my private life," Chuck gritted back.

"Butt out? Just what the hell are you trying to hide?"

"NOTHING!" He took a half-second to recover any surprise or guilt he might have felt and got back on task. "I just want to have some part of my life to be my own. I want to have some semblance of control in my life that doesn't have the government in it. Just something I can have to myself. Ever since this all started, I have been in danger more times than I am comfortable with. I just want to get back to my life."

Sarah forcibly stilled herself and took a deep breath to refocus. _One_ _thing at a time._

"Alright, let's start with breaking up with Lou first. I know you like her, but this is not a good time for her to be in your life." She was once again in control of her emotions and regarded Chuck coldly.

"No."

"You do it, or I _will_."

"Sarah, please just let me have this," Chuck pleaded.

There were footsteps in the hallway and the door gave a sound as it opened. Before Chuck could react, Sarah grabbed Chuck, buried her face in his neck and grasped his hair with both hands.

"The hell, Chuck?" Lou exclaimed when she saw them in a seemingly intimate position.

"NO! It's not what it looks like," Chuck said as he tried to pry Sarah off.

"What are you talking about?" Sarah asked bewilderedly, playing the innocent role to the hilt. "I thought you wanted to get back together with me?"

Lou looked furious as she strode out of the room in anger. Chuck pushed Sarah off of him and tried to run after Lou.

"Wait! No, please come back! Can't we talk about this?" Chuck chased her a bit, but she had already disappeared.

Sarah walked up to him, gave him a cold glance, and left.

* * *

Chuck dragged his feet into his office and slumped into his chair. He tried to call Lou again, but she still refused to answer. Failing that, he stared at the code on his screen, not really seeing it. His reverie was broken by his office phone.

"Hello, Chuck Bartowski speaking."

_"Hey, Chuck. Come up to my office. We have a situation to attend to."_

"I'm on my way, Ted."

He stood up and made his way up to Ted's office. Ted's secretary let him into the office, where Ted was waiting. Tommy was unobtrusively leaning against the wall in the corner. Anticipation tickled in Chuck's stomach.

"What's going on?" Chuck asked.

"Well," Ted began. "We have a couple of concerns. Concerns that concern your rather tenuous position with the government."

"Listen, I'm trying to get them off my back, but they're really persistent."

"We know that you're trying to keep them at arm's length," Tommy said, "but that's starting to look suspicious. We're going to have to play ball with them."

"Play ball?"

"You can no longer be just an asset under their control," Tommy continued, "you're now going to have to act like a real spy. Walker and Casey are your marks. You have to let them believe that you are relenting to their conditions."

"That's going to be kind of difficult to pull off since I've been so vehement in protesting against it. I don't think they'd buy me wanting increased protection and surveillance. Besides, won't that make things worse?"

"Not if you know how to play the game," Tommy said with a slight smirk. "And I do."

* * *

"You have him back under your thumb yet?" Casey asked Sarah as he cleaned one of his guns.

"It's getting there. I created a compromising situation for Lou to walk in on. Now I just have to convince him the importance of eliminating any possible risks to him and other people in his life so that he'll be easier to handle."

Sarah worked on setting up the videoconference with Graham and Beckman as she gave Casey her update. She appeared calm and professional about the situation, which Casey appreciated. No more lady feelings to put up with.

The monitor came online, and their bosses wasted no time on pleasantries, getting right down to business.

"We have picked up communications that Fulcrum agents are going to meet at this harbor," Graham began.

A map came up and showed the location indicated as Beckman continued. "We want you to go there and find out what their plans are. If there is a circumstance where immediate action is needed, take it."

"Do you want us to bring the Intersect?" Sarah asked.

"No," replied Graham. "With the Intersect in an untrained civilian, we don't want to keep putting him at risk in the field. We should try to get him to watch any missions from a safe area. Have him watch from his home feed so that he might supply any useful information."

"We're on our way, then," Casey finished.

* * *

Sarah and Casey kept an eye on the two men they found at the site. All they had done so far was talk. Through the bugs that Casey and Sarah had planted, they were talking about basketball.

"There's something wrong," Sarah said.

"Yeah," said Casey. "The guy on the right thinks the Bulls can beat the Lakers tonight at Staples."

"No, it's something else. We got reports of something big happening here, but there's nothing."

_"Are you sure about this?"_ Chuck spoke through the headset from his home_. "I've been analyzing_ _that intercepted communication, and there are some odd things in the-__WHOA_!"

A crash could be heard on Chuck's end, and Sarah's blood went cold. A scuffle was heard, followed by complete silence.

"Chuck? Come in, are you alright?" Sarah said as her fear began to rise.

_"He's alright…for now," _a voice replied with a laugh from Chuck's comm.

"Tommy," Casey growled.

_"Very good, Major. This tech is quite good. And he knows quite a bit more than he should. Please don't look for him." _The phone clicked.

"Chuck?" Sarah said anxiously into her comm. "CHUCK!"

Getting no answer, she brought up his tracker. She started the car and tore off after his signal.

* * *

They lost his signal near some industrial buildings. Sarah huffed in frustration and kept driving in the direction she was going. Casey brought up some maps and tried to find out where Fulcrum could have taken Chuck.

"We lost the signal at these buildings over here," Casey said pointing at a map.

Sarah sped up and they got to the buildings within minutes. They exited the car and started checking the place for anywhere Chuck might be. Their sweep brought them to the end of the shipping dock. A van sat idling as a couple of figures entered it. Sarah darted forward to get a better look and stifled a gasp when she saw Chuck.

When he went into the back, the doors closed behind him and someone entered the driver's door. Sarah heard Casey catch up to her as she looked around for any other people. As Casey reached her, Sarah stayed low and closed the distance to the van. She threw open the door on the driver's side and aimed her gun into the van.

"Don't move! And step out of the car," Sarah ordered.

The driver already had a gun aimed at her and fired. Sarah jerked out of the way and returned fire. However, the driver hit the accelerator and the van lurched forward, attempting to flee. Before it could get too far away, Sarah leapt onto the back bumper and tried to get the rear door opened.

"_Sarah?"_ she heard Chuck's voice come from inside.

"I'm here, Chuck. Just hold on and I'll get you out of here."

Before she could go any further, the van made a sharp turn, which threw her off. She tucked and rolled to lessen the impact. When she looked up, she felt despair at losing the van. That, however, was short-lived when the van ran into a wall. On the other side, she saw Casey cautiously move forward with smoke pouring out the barrel of his gun.

The back of the van opened up and Chuck staggered out, followed closely by two goons. One of them grabbed the back of his shirt and put a gun to Chuck's head.

"Listen, lady…" he started. He never completed the sentence as two shots rang out. Both the man and his partner fell to the ground.

Casey came up from behind and kept his gun trained on them. "Come on, let's get him home."

* * *

Sarah peeked out the corner of her eye at Chuck. He was strangely quiet and subdued during the debriefing. Now she was escorting him back to his apartment, and he still hadn't said much. The pensive look on his face was not much for her to divine an answer from.

They reached his apartment and entered. Chuck looked at the trashed space and gave a resigned sigh. Sarah felt kind of awkward at this point.

"I'll clean this up tomorrow. After I explain things to Lou and officially break up with her." Chuck turned tired eyes to Sarah and continued. "So, I guess there's no chance of having a normal life, huh?"

Sarah took a moment to measure her response. "I'm sorry for the way I acted earlier. I was angry and taking it out on you. I was too aggressive. I'm sorry."

A nervous tension welled in Sarah, anticipating Chuck's response. She did not like how things had devolved between them so negatively, and she wanted to make things easier.

"You're forgiven," he responded quietly. "I guess I haven't been the most understanding or easiest asset to work with, either. I guess I just didn't understand the amount of danger I was in until now."

Another awkward silence.

"Well, since we're going to be working together, we should work on making our relationship as easy as possible," Chuck started. He extended his hand to Sarah. "Friends, at least?"

A small smile made its way on Sarah's face as she took his hand. "Friends."

She left the apartment feeling a little bit lighter. Chuck felt the weight of his numerous tasks get heavier.


	10. A Dreadful Proposition

_Disclaimer: I don't own Chuck. I do own my original characters._

_A/N: Thank you to PJ Murphy for the beta. I was having trouble fitting Casey and Sarah into this chapter, but he inspired a scene for them. Thanks!_

Chapter 10: A Dreadful Proposition

"I don't care about any of the technical details. Just give me an estimate of when the new computer will be up," Graham said.

He eyed Assistant Executive Technician Peter of the Intersect Project sitting at the table across from him. They were in a high-class bar in the area that attracted a lot of government types after a long day. Graham and the tech were in a secluded corner to discuss sensitive information without interference.

"Well, sir, the official estimate is four months. My boss said…"

"I don't want to hear about his opinion. I want yours," Graham tersely replied. "He's just going to obfuscate the answer and give me some BS that would be meant to placate me and the brass. I need an honest opinion from someone whose ass isn't on the line, but close enough to know the score." Graham gave the tech a glare that roiled his stomach acid.

"Well, I would say that it is closer to six months before we can start beta testing, and even longer before we could try downloading it into actual agents," Peter answered. Sweat dripped down his back and he fought the urge to grab his inhaler at the stone cold glare of the CIA director.

Before Graham could respond, a delighted and carefree laugh resounded through the room. Graham gritted his teeth and schooled his expression as a phantom pain cut through an old knife wound upon recognition of the voice. He thought if he didn't react, she wouldn't see him and just go away.

"Why, Langston? Langston Graham, is that you?"

No such luck. Graham turned a bit toward the voice. "Ariel. It's been awhile," he gritted out in the most blandly polite tone.

Ariel gave a girlish giggle as she strode over and took a seat with Graham and the tech.

"I know, it seems like forever since we were in the field fighting for what we believe in. Oh, is this one of your pet computer techs?" she asked as she turned to said geek.

"Yes," Graham politely replied. "We were actually in the middle of an important conversation."

Graham swore she consciously refused to take the hint. He fought down a wave of annoyance as Ariel went ahead and did what she usually did: whatever the hell she wanted.

"Well," she started toward the tech. "If Langston is talking to you in this place, it must mean that you are highly placed on a project. That must also mean that you are quite a competent computer programmer. Am I close, dear?"

"Um..."

There was something very warm and inviting about the woman that Peter responded to. She actually reminded him of Aunt Rosie. He felt more at ease with her than he was with Graham.

"Peter," Graham started. "Keep in mind the top secret nature…"

"He wasn't going to say anything, Langston," Ariel cut him off. Graham was convinced that was one of her favorite past-times. She turned back to Peter. "Don't worry, cupcake. Langston and I were at the Farm together and actually did some missions together. But that was a while ago and I have moved on to other things."

"Really? You were a field agent and you left?" Peter asked. His impression was that most agents left the agency by means of a ditch or shallow grave in some secluded backwater hellhole.

"Of course. Right now I have a wonderful family and great job at Roark Industries."

"Excuse me, Ariel, but we were having a private meeting…"

"Hold your horses, Langston. We are just having a quick and informal conversation over here. You don't need to interrupt."

"What?" Graham asked flabbergasted.

"Anyways, Langston and I go way back. But I want to find out more about _you._"

"Me?" Peter was taken aback.

"Excuse me…" Graham tried to cut in again.

"As I said before, this whole meeting seems to tell me that you are in a unique position with plenty of talent. And I like to think that I can read people very well. Believe me; that little ability has helped save my skin in plenty of gooey situations."

Ariel took out a business card and wrote something on the back. She handed it to Peter.

"After your meeting, come by my room. I'm here in town for a conference for a few days, but I would like to find out more about your abilities and how we might be able to use them at Roark. I would like to give you a few scenarios and computer problems to demonstrate your skills."

Peter accepted the card with a mild feeling of shock. "Are you offering me a job? I…I already have one."

Ariel gave him a big smile that projected warmth and reassurance. "Think about it as a widening of your options. Let me tell you; we take very good care of our people."

"Thank you. I'll think about it," Peter replied, cottoning onto the idea a bit more.

"Ariel..." Graham growled threateningly.

"Oh, hush now, Langston. You know I'm just poaching...headhunting. I'm just doing a wordier version of actual hunting. Remember that time in the Congo when we were hunting down that…"

"Classified. And I'm busy."

"Oh, Langston looks like he's about to have kittens. Silly me, it looks like I might have overstayed my welcome a bit. I will see you later, Peter," Ariel cheerily said to him as she got up and sashayed out.

"Thank you!" Peter called out after her. He looked at the card thoughtfully before he put it away.

"Can we get back to business now?" Graham asked with a voice laced with granite. Ariel always seemed to bring the worst out of him.

* * *

The screen turned off and Sarah gathered her things to go. Just as she was about to leave Casey's apartment, he stopped her with a question.

"Are you compromised?"

Casey turned around and looked at her, face neutral. Sarah paused for a moment to think about her answer.

"No."

"Really? You seemed to be getting chummy with the asset a few weeks ago."

Sarah furrowed her brow and gave the situation some more thought. "No. I mean, we've been really professional with each other. Ever since Chuck's second kidnapping, he's been very cooperative. But distant. We both are. He's been really civil and polite, but he is definitely keeping things professional."

"I've noticed that, too. Maybe he's finally learning how dangerous the situation is. At least that makes things easier for all of us. I don't know how much more of your girly feelings I could have stood. What about your cover? Are you doing your job keeping scrutiny off of him in his personal life?"

Sarah frowned at that. "Well, there's not much cover work to do. We hardly ever actually see each other anymore. Sometimes he'll come over to the pretzel shop and we'll exchange a couple of words. Maybe a kiss on the cheek. And when he sees his friends or family, he insists it's not an occasion where I have to make a girlfriend appearance. Besides, when he does that, he's calling me on his cell phone letting me know where he was going." At this point, Sarah was letting some of her frustration leak through. "You know, he really should put more effort into the cover story. Why, last week we were supposed to do some cover maintenance but taking couple-pictures, but he blew me off for work. He's been spending a lot of time at work lately."

"I don't mind that. At least at Roark, he's safe. They have intense security that passes our muster. But I have to say, it sounds like you're slacking off in your duties to the Intersect."

Indignation stormed through Sarah and she growled at Casey. "I am not slacking off. I am checking his tracker five times a day, checking surveillance every hour when he's not at work, and doing what I can to make sure he's safe. That is my number one priority. Anything else is none of your damned business!"

With that, Sarah stormed out and slammed the door. She strode through the halls to her car, the conversation rattling through her mind.

She was loathe to admit it, but things were definitely different between her and Chuck. Yes, he was a much more manageable asset now and did everything asked, but she couldn't help but miss the fun they had. There was so much she had done in her career as an agent, so it was nice to pretend, deep down, that she was a normal person with Chuck with a normal life.

In a way, things were easier now that they were acting more like coworkers than star-crossed crushes. He had pulled away emotionally, which makes it easier to deal with her own thoughts and feelings. However, there was a wall between them now that Sarah couldn't help but feel. It ached, and she realized just how lonely she was.

* * *

"…so the transistors would go here, and we seal off the rest of the area to make sure that the circuits are in optimal conditions to operate," Peter finished with a couple of final marks on the illustration.

Ariel shoved another shot glass of the strange concoction she was whipping up in their meeting. In return, she took the mock-up drawing Peter had made and checked it over. Peter felt even more warmth and a desire to show-off his skills upon seeing the look of approval on her face.

"Fascinating. I must say, I am thoroughly impressed at your ability to look at these practice problems and find the best way to solve them." Peter beamed at the praise.

Ariel fished around through her folders, tongue sticking out in concentration. Peter gulped down his drink and felt the warmth and happiness spread through his body. He was lapping up Ariel's praise and felt that he didn't want to disappoint her.

"Ah-ha!" she suddenly crowed. She handed the sheet of paper to Peter and he looked at the design specs and problems. Something twinged in recognition, but he paid that little attention.

"Hmm, this is very interesting," he started. "Your drawing actually reminds me of this super big and super secret government project I'm working on right now. But I'm not supposed to tell anyone about it."

"Oh, don't worry about that, hon," Ariel whispered to him while giving a conspiratorial wink. "If you can somehow draw on any real life experience, it would show you have actual practical knowledge to apply. That is a definite plus in any future employer's book."

"That makes sense," Peter gushed. "Alright, this is how we did it in that project, which I personally worked out."

* * *

Chuck rolled his shoulders as he scrutinized the code in front of him. He was still sore from falling off a balcony tied to Casey and falling into a pool the night before. Despite the aches, he still smiled at the glimpse of a softer side of his NSA handler.

He was jolted out of his reverie when a message from Ted told him to come up to his office. With a good dose of curiosity, he boarded the series of elevators that kept the F-Intersect basement separate from the rest of the building.

Ted's secretary gestured him inside, and he saw his boss looking at some papers. He looked up and gestured Chuck to a seat in front of him.

"Take a look at these, Chuck," Ted said.

He took the papers from Roark and rifled through them for a few moments. He then looked up in surprise. "What are these?"

"The new government Intersect plans."

"What? How did you get these?"

"Ariel has her ways. These are a close approximation, but we will be getting more information on it sooner. Estimated completion time is six months. Do you know what that means?"

Ted was looking at Chuck with a significant gaze. Not knowing what to make of it, he gave a weak shrug.

"No. What does it mean?"

"It means in the government's eyes, you will become redundant. A liability. There is no way, once they have their new Intersect up, will they have the old version running around. Do you know where I'm getting at?"

Chuck felt the bottom fall out of his stomach. "They're going to kill me?"

"Yes."

They were quiet. Chuck tried to process the information rationally, but couldn't keep the wave of dread and panic from rising.

"What do we do?" Chuck asked Ted in a quiet voice.

Ted walked over to his liquor cabinet and took out some whiskey. He poured for him and Chuck and took the glasses back to his desk. Chuck grabbed his tumbler and tossed it back. He set it back on the desk and looked up expectantly at Ted.

"We are going to steal an integral component of the Intersect, called the Cipher. We are then going to switch it with our own component. And I need you to make it."

"What do you want our Cipher to do?" He was reassured a bit but still had that sinking feeling.

Ted leaned over his desk and looked Chuck directly in the eye. "I need you to blow up their Intersect."

_A/N2: Thanks for the read. Don't forget to review, I appreciate feedback._

_And man, that finale. She may not remember everything at that moment, but she definitely loved him._


	11. Taking Control

_Disclaimer: I do not own Chuck and his fellow friends and agents. However, I do own the people that I made up._

_A/N: Wow, it's been a while. Life really took me hostage. Anyways, here's the next chapter. And thank PJ Murphy for the polish._

**Chapter 11: Taking Control**

"Blow up their Intersect?" Chuck echoed faintly. He absently brought his glass back up to his lips and took a swig of apple juice. He looked dully ahead, not seeing what was in front. "What if someone dies when it blows up? I'm not a killer."

Ariel took the glass back and refilled it. She handed it to Chuck, hoping he had the presence of mind not to drop it on her new couch. Although it would not have been a big deal, given she had plenty of experience cleaning various stains on upholstery.

"Chuck, just take a moment and breathe. What were the exact parameters Ted gave you for this mission?"

"He mostly just said blow up the Intersect. We talked about how it should be blown up, but I barely remember it. I don't want to actually hurt anyone."

Chuck slumped down and buried his face in his hands. He massaged his temples as he tried to process the horror that Ted wanted him to do. Ariel watched him, and saw an opportunity.

"Chuck," she said as she kneeled next to him. "Look me in the eyes."

He did so. Worry etched his face, but he gathered himself up enough to pay attention.

"You are a very smart and creative young man," she continued. "So yes, you have to destroy the Intersect. However, you have the latitude to do it the way you want. This is the moment where you have to step up and find out how to execute your orders without violating your own beliefs. This is also a potential crowning victory if you can go above and beyond the call of duty. Are you getting me?"

Chuck focused on her face. She was intense and powerful, but gentle and warm. He turned her words over in his head and some solutions began to germinate. His formerly despondent look started to fade into thoughtfulness and determination.

"Yeah, I think I am," he replied with a fierce grin.

/^\

Tom Varnes took another look at the relay and compared it with his blueprints. He nodded in satisfaction and dreamed of having a drink or five after work to celebrate. He gave Chuck a thumbs-up.

With the approval from Tom, Chuck looked down at the Cipher they were making and started it up. His grin widened into glee and satisfaction as he saw the program do its magic. Tom meandered over and looked over Chuck's shoulder, sharing in the accomplishment.

"I think that about does it," Chuck said. "Is there anything else we need to do before we get the mission started?"

Tom looked thoughtful and tapped his chin. A snap of his fingers meant an idea had just blossomed.

"Yeah, I think we should change the message. _Thank you, Fulcrum_ sounds a little too polite, kind of like a Hallmark card. We should do something a little more declarative. Something like _Fulcrum Thanks You_ might twist the knife."

Chuck looked at Tom and then back at the computer. He shrugged. "Sure. I guess you have a point there." Chuck made the changes. "The next part is the easy part. We just have to steal the real Cipher and replace it with this one. The real Cipher is going to be in transit, and one of our operatives is going to intercept it."

"How are you doing the switch? Sounds kind of confusing."

"Well, my handlers will probably be charged with getting it back, so I would likely be along with them. The agent will have to make the exchange with me at some point during the mission, but I'm sure those details will be ironed out later. Should be easy."

/^\

"IS THIS REALLY NECESSARY?" Chuck shouted up at Colt, who was dangling him over the side of a building.

"Of course," he replied with an easy grin. "We have to make it look real to fool those handlers of yours."

"Can't we make it look real and menacing without dangling me over the side of a building? We are just supposed to exchange Ciphers. Dangling me over a building is taking away important Cipher-exchange time."

"Don't worry about it," Colt said, who seemed to be enjoying this too much. "I've got you."

"No. Bring me back up so we can make the exchange and be on our way before my handlers get here."

"Heh, you're no fun," Colt said as he started to haul Chuck back up. That was interrupted by the door getting blasted open and Casey and Sarah charging in.

"Drop the nerd," Casey growled, training his gun on Colt.

"No! Don't drop the nerd!" Chuck shouted.

_Too bad for him_, Colt thought as he dropped Chuck in order to get away. Chuck screamed and grabbed out at the fire escape. It broke his fall and he managed to get on it. He looked up as Sarah looked down with a look of terror.

"Chuck, are you alright?" she shouted down at him.

"Bruised. Everything is strained. Other than that, I'm fine." Chuck flopped back on the fire escape grate as he tried to calm down. He looked back up at Sarah and saw relief on her face.

"Is that the Cipher you have in your hand?" she asked.

"Yes," Chuck said in disappointment. "It is."

He started hitting his head back against the grate, angry at Colt for screwing up the mission.

/^\

"We still have time to make a change before their Cipher is taken back. Casey has it with him, so we just have to get one of our guys to pick it up. Can we do that?"

Ted typed a couple of things into his computer after Chuck finished. "Yes, we can do that. What about Agent Walker? Where is she going to be?"

Chuck fought a flinch. "Um, I think she's going to be in her apartment. Since her assignment here will be over, she'll probably be getting ready to leave."

Ted fixed Chuck with a thoughtful look and steepled his hands. "Chuck, do you think she might be the one to eliminate you?"

This time, Chuck couldn't hide his shocked reaction. His face paled and he stammered a bit as he heard the question and possibility that he had been dreading. "I-I hope not. That may be more of a Casey thing. But if you maybe tranq him when you get the Cipher, he won't be able to kill me on the way."

"It's cute that you're trying to blind yourself to your female handler's capabilities, but you really have to keep things in perspective." Ted gave Chuck a firm glare. "She is a highly trained and successful CIA spy. Sure, she might seem like a nice friend and potential girlfriend…"

Chuck tried to protest, but Ted bulled on. "…but you have to remember that she is a stone cold assassin. You are her mark, her asset. She is nice and friendly to keep you under control, but she will kill you in a heartbeat if she gets orders to do so. That is why we have to create a scenario where she won't get a chance to kill you."

Chuck looked away. He had a lot of things to say, but he buried all of it and took a moment. He murmured, "And how do you propose we do that?"

Ted smiled warmly. "Easy. You are going to ask her out on a going-away date."

"Hold on," Chuck interrupted. "We're just friends. Or something like that. We have been trying to keep things professional and there's nothing going on…"

"Chuck, just do it," Ted cut in. "Just go on this date and Colt will come in and make a scene. Then you will both know that the Cipher was taken, and Walker will then retrieve it." He directed a glare at Colt. "And this time, don't fool around."

/^\

Chuck looked on from far away as Colt was lead away to a waiting truck to take him to some secret prison. He clamped down on his imagination of what that would be like if he was sent to one before he could give himself a heart attack.

They were able to exchange the Ciphers and the plan was going swimmingly, except for the part where Colt was captured. Now he just needed to make sure that neither Sarah nor Casey would kill him before his Cipher did its job. He wasn't sure who would do it, but he had a feeling that Casey would be the one.

Sarah came over and squeezed his hand. "It looks like it's settled now."

"Yeah. The Cipher's going to go and complete the new Intersect. And then I'll be left to live my life again."

"It wasn't all bad, was it?" Sarah coyly asked with a touch of shyness. She was looking at him askance and Chuck felt the corners of his lips tug up. Buried deep in himself, he was almost positive that she would do nothing to intentionally hurt him. She wasn't his assassin, she was his protector. Even though he tried to fight that sentiment with the logic of what she was and whose side he was on, he couldn't completely suppress the guilt that said he was betraying her. He firmly told himself he wasn't betraying her because she was the enemy. But he could not dwell on that too long; the plan had to go on.

"So, now that everything is taken care of, how about we have a third first date?" Chuck asked.

The smile she responded with gave Chuck butterflies. He tried to squash those butterflies with the knowledge he needed her with him to possibly fend off possible assassins, like Casey.

/^\

The Cipher booted up and started to smoothly download. Graham smiled in satisfaction as he put his glasses on while the agents behind him took theirs off. The smile promptly left his face when the message _FULCRUM THANKS YOU_ flashed across the screen. A countdown of five minutes started while Graham turned to the monitor in the wall.

"What is happening?" he called to the technicians on the other side of the camera. He ran out of the Intersect room and to the control center.

"Sir, it seems that the Cipher contained a virus," the technician said. "All of our files are getting downloaded and sent somewhere. At the same time, it has started a self-destruct sequence. We have to get out of here…now!" The technician was in a full panic as his fingers flew over the keyboard.

"What about our data? What are they getting?"

"Everything! But we have to evacuate," the scientist said as he scrambled for the door. Graham grabbed him and pulled him back.

"No! You have to keep Fulcrum from getting everything."

"It's too late," the scientist yelled in alarm. "There's only three minutes left before the building blows. There's no time to even think about stopping the download. Besides, everyone is already evacuating."

With that, he wrenched out of Graham's grip and ran out. Graham looked around and noticed that the lights and PA were broadcasting evacuation procedures. With a mild curse, he ran out as well.

He barely made it a safe distance before the whole complex blew up. He leaned against the car that he had taken cover behind and pulled out his cell phone. Fury played across his features as he figured the next step.

_Looks like the time has come to test the Aurora Chair. If R & D is right, that should be able to rip the Intersect out of Bartowski's head, even if it leaves him severely brain damaged. But at least he'll be out of our hair._

Graham pressed Send for the number he dialed so he could give the order to bring Chuck in. He never even got the chance to lift the phone to his ear before his mind was forcefully rearranged on the car door.

/^\

Ariel looked up from her scope and gave a nod of satisfaction at another job well done. She smiled to herself as she packed the rifle away.

"Still got it."


End file.
